China's ten-year-long endeavor to relieve and prevent severe pollution in the Huaihe River, for which the Chinese government input more than 60 billion yuan (7.2 billion US dollars), made little progress, according to a senior official from the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

Xie Zhenhua, director of the SEPA, said that thanks to the country's painstaking efforts, the GDP (gross domestic product) of the Huaihe River valley grew by 134 percent from 1996 to 2003, while the COD discharge in the river dropped by 50 percent.

However, Xie said, some enterprises along the river still unlawfully discharged sewage into the river's tributaries, making the river's pollution still severe.

Statistics from the Huaihe Water Resources Committee show that the river's water quality this May was as bad as its worst level in history, which occurred in the 1990s.

Wang Jijie, vice-director of the SEPA, blamed the river's pollution for excessive water resources development, slow industrial structure adjustment along the river and scarcity of sewage processing factories.

He said the Huaihe River's water resources only accounted for 3.4 percent of the country's total, while the river valley's farmland took up to 15.2 percent of the country's total and its population occupied 16.2 percent of the country's total. Therefore, about 60 percent of the river's water resources have been tapped for drinking, farmland irrigation and industrial production, making the river's self-purification ability very weak.

Heavy pollution industries are still the industrial pillars of the river valley. Nowadays, the paper-making industry, chemical industry, beverage industry, textile industry and food industry have discharged 78.4 percent and 94.2 percent of the river's total COD and ammonia nitrogen, said Wang.

In addition, the processing ability of sewage processing factories along the river is far short of the actual need, Wang continued.

Wang demanded local governments to adjust the industrial structure as soon as possible and arrange agricultural and industrial production according to the river's capacity.

He also urged relevant laws and regulations to be enacted in an attempt to legalize the river's water protection.

The Huaihe River, the third largest river of China, is home to one sixth of the country's population and flows through the provinces of Henan, Hubei, Anhui and Jiangsu.

Source: Xinhua