According to a Xinhua report released yesterday, high-level and -pressure underground waste discharges from several enterprises have been leading to an increasingly high level of underground water pollution in eastern China's Shandong Province. As of yesterday, all enterprises had yet to respond to these new findings.

On the Chinese mainland, underground water pollution is a serious matter. One third of all water resources in China are in fact groundwater-based, yet experts say that 90 percent of the nation's groundwater contains varying degrees of pollution, with a massive 60 percent being heavily polluted. According to the Xinhua report, continuous monitoring data from across 118 cities now show that about 64 percent of urban groundwater is heavily polluted and basic clean groundwater makes up for a mere three percent.

Recently, social activist Deng Fei revealed on his Weibo-blog how large numbers of chemical plants and paper mills use high pressure wells to illegally dump their chemical, and hazardous, waste underground, contaminating the underground water. Their doing so constitutes a highly illegal practice which has gone unpunished for many years and in many cities.

After Deng Fei posted his latest Weibo-story, the blog went viral on Feb. 14. As the press got wind of Deng's writing, reporters visited the relevant companies to follow up on his claims.

The official Weibo-blog for People's Daily called for any citizens living around these polluting companies or suspecting this sort of on-goings in their areas, to contact the newspaper. "Let us do something to save our common home," the blog read.

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