[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
DAM-L SCMP "Putrid lake proof environmental policies have failed to hold (fwd)
----- Forwarded message from owner-irn-three-gorges@netvista.net -----
Return-path: <owner-irn-three-gorges@netvista.net>
Received: from noxmail.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca (nox.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca [192.139.46.6])
by lox.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca (8.8.7/8.8.8) with ESMTP id NAA27360
for <dianne@pophost.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca>; Mon, 15 Oct 2001 13:38:25 -0400 (EDT)
From: owner-irn-three-gorges@netvista.net
Received: from DaVinci.NetVista.net (IDENT:mjdomo@mail.netvista.net [206.170.46.10])
by noxmail.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id f9FHLXK18262
for <dianne@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca>; Mon, 15 Oct 2001 13:21:33 -0400 (EDT)
Received: [(from mjdomo@localhost)
by DaVinci.NetVista.net (8.10.0/8.8.8) id f9FHSse00183
for irn-three-gorges-list; Mon, 15 Oct 2001 10:28:54 -0700 (PDT)
(envelope-from owner-irn-three-gorges@netvista.net)]
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 10:28:54 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <200110151728.f9FHSse00183@DaVinci.NetVista.net>
Subject: SCMP "Putrid lake proof environmental policies have failed to hold
water"
Sender: owner-irn-three-gorges@netvista.net
Precedence: bulk
South China Morning Post, Monday, October 15, 2001
Putrid lake proof environmental policies have failed to hold water
JASPER BECKER
The smell from Lake Dianchi hits you even before it comes in sight. A
floating carpet of green algae and a dense matting of water hyacinth covers
the bays of the fresh-water lake whose beauty has inspired generations of
poets.
Nowhere is the abject failure of China's environmental policies more visible
than in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province.
The clean-up of Dianchi Lake was deemed a national priority, but after
absorbing US$2 billion (HK$15.56 billion) in loans and grants, the lake is
dirtier than ever.
"In the past three years there are fewer fish and they keep getting smaller.
They don't taste good either," said fishermen Gong Gaoling.
When he was growing up, the waters were crystal clear and there were 57
types of fish and shrimp to catch. Now there are just six, and half of the
species have vanished altogether.
The Government has virtually abandoned hope of using the lake again for
water supplies. At the bottom is a poisonous sediment of cadmium, arsenic
and lead.
In the past 20 or 30 years, most of the rivers in China have become clogged
with sediment and chemicals. A national campaign in 1996 targeted three key
rivers - the Liao, Huai and Hai - and three lakes - Taihu, Chaohu and
Dianchi.
Despite reams of self-congratulatory reports in the media, officials are now
starting to admit nothing has changed. The waters of the Huai River are just
as undrinkable as before. Most of Dianchi's water even fails to register as
Grade V - the lowest national water standard.
Kunming's failure is an embarrassment. The Yunnan Government spent huge sums
to modernise the city in time for the 1999 International Horticultural
Exposition.
To prepare for the big event, the city told 249 polluters to meet
waste-water discharge standards or shut. Officials claimed it cut pollution
by 85 per cent.
Next, they poured chemicals into the lake to kill the algae and used nets to
sweep up the slime so it would look good enough to impress visitors.
To try to meet targets, local officials tried to cheat by various means such
as moving one monitoring station from one end of the lake to the other in
order to get better readings.
Fisherman Mr Gong said factories only pretended to obey orders to shut.
"They just made a pretence of shutting down, then they secretly opened
again, sometimes at night," he said.
There are 5,000 factories in the Dianchi basin - the only industrial area in
Yunnan province. Most of them - producing chemical fertiliser as well as
extracting minerals such as tin - date from the 1950s and 1960s and are
state-owned. No one has even been jailed for polluting the lake and half the
fees levelled on polluters are never collected. The largest penalty only
amounts to 100,000 yuan (HK$94,000).
Kunming's record in tackling the pollution shows a lack of any real
political will to solve the problems that became apparent 30 years ago.
The city's first waste-water plant was not built until 1990, five years
after Kunming began to run short of water. The recycled water is pumped back
into a part of the lake full of floating rubbish.
"Even after treatment you still can't drink the water," admitted Wu Yihui,
the director of a second plant built in 1996.
The failure to meet the pollution challenge has throttled Kunming's economic
growth and it is now forced to invest in massive engineering works to bring
drinking water from far away.
Kunming has benefited from huge grants and loans from the World Bank, Japan,
Australia, Sweden and other governments keen to clean up the lake, but has
now chosen to pursue another costly alternative.
A huge new water treatment plant will enable the city to treat 80 per cent
of its effluent. Plans are afoot to build a canal around the lake to divert
all the water to the World Bank-financed treatment plant. Yet the Government
does not expect to be able to use the treated water in the future.
"We just can't make the water clear," said Lin Kuang, of the Dianchi
Regulatory Commission. The cost of cleaning up the lake and recycling the
water is now calculated to be greater than importing it.
Since the 1980s, the city has relied on water brought from the Songhua Dam
reservoir about 100km away. But the dam is becoming contaminated by run-off
from chemical fertilisers.
Instead, the Kunming authorities are now planning to build another scheme to
tap the waters of the Jinsha River to the north.
Yet Kunming should never have run short of water. It is not only located by
one of the largest lakes in Asia, but also in a sub-tropical monsoon belt.
----- End of forwarded message from owner-irn-three-gorges@netvista.net -----