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China Calls for Rational Exploitation of Major River
China's environmental protection authorities urged Thursday that the water resources of the Huaihe River be rationally used in order to improve the quality of the water.
The utilization rate of water resources in the Huaihe River, a major water source in east China, has reached 50 percent, much higher than the 40-percent ceiling for rational exploitation of inland rivers as is widely accepted internationally, said Liu Hongzhi, an official with the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).
About 4,000 reservoirs along the river have made the river flow too weak to wash away pollutants, Liu said at a press conference Thursday.
"Pollutants accumulates in the still water in these reservoirs, which has caused pollution, from time to time, in areas downstream when sluice gates are opened," She said.
The SEPA and eight other ministries conducted a comprehensive inspection of the work on pollution control in the river in February-March this year, and found that the water quality "has improved but not enough," Liu said.
Around 90 percent of the processed sewage injected into the river meets the national standard now, up from 30 percent six years ago.
However, there remain too many paper mills that produce heavy pollution the 1,100-km-long Huaihe River and the pollution from riverside rural areas is still out of control, Liu added.
China started to tackle the water pollution of the Huaihe River in 1994.
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