China's Water Supplies are in Danger by Zuzana Moravcova

More than 60,000 people in Beijing, China, had to be using emergency water sources, rely on bottles of water and limited underground water, after officials discovered Sunday that the Dongjing River, part of a major river system in central China, was red and bubbly. Gao Qijin, head of the water company in Xingou township, said they immediately stopped drawing water from the polluted river. The authorities were forced to close schools and cut water supplies to only 200,000 people, which led to final number of five schools that were closed, while the open ones were not able to provide food to their students. But what is the source of the unpredicted pollution? Unfortunately, it has not been determined, and an investigation is going on. Tests showed the pollution was caused mainly by metal cleaning, tanning and bleaching, that produces chemicals such as nitrogen, ammonia and permanganate. These chemicals were proved to be contained in the water on a high level, Xinhua said. The pollutants are supposed to be flushed out of the river, after local officials closed a gate linking the Hanjiang River to the tributaries. Meanwhile, they are using water from the nearby Changhu Lake. We believe the river pollution to be only a temporary problem. However, more significant problem, that is worrying the inhabitants, remains & it is the long-term deprivation of water, as the rainfall has been below world average since 1999, lower than in Israel. The city is draining surrounding regions, depriving poor farmers, who have been ordered to grow only corn, because it requires less water. The city of Beijing is 90 miles from the sea, which is one of the reasons it has had water problems for more than a millennium. Moreover, due to rapid development in recent decades, intensive agriculture and wealthier lifestyles have drawn down and polluted the city's water supply. "Very few people used toilets in the 1950s, but right now everyone uses toilets, uses showers, uses swimming pools, and fancy buildings use lots of water,"said Dai Qing, a former journalist who turned China's prominent environmental campaigner. "We don't have water but no one mentions it, all the policy makers never mention that, just develop, develop," he added.

by Zuzana Moravcova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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