Around 70 percent of the tributaries of the Huaihe River, the
supplier of water to one sixth of the country's 1.3 billion
population, are seriously polluted, according to an annual
environment monitoring report issued by the Environmental
Protection Administration of east China's Anhui Province.
The overall water quality of the mainstream is described as
lightly contaminated. Most of the pollutants are ammonia and
nitrogen, the report says.
In 1994, China launched a campaign to clean the water of the
Huaihe River. By the end of 2005, 62.7 percent of the projects
listed in the campaign were completed but with limited effect. The
water-cleaning action "achieved less than expected result, and
pollution in the tributaries is still severe, if not worse," said
Pan Yue, deputy director of the State Administration of
Environmental Protection.
Water from Huaihe's tributaries, which carry 60 percent of the
total water resources of the river, are too polluted to supply even
industrial production and irrigation, let alone drinking.
The State Administration of Environmental Protection has ordered
local governments to adjust the industrial structure, arrange
agricultural and industrial production based on the river's
capacity and push forward the emission licensing system.
The Huaihe River flows through four central and eastern Chinese
provinces -- Henan, Anhui, Shandong and Jiangsu -- and is located between the
country's other two major rivers, the Yangtze and the Yellow
rivers.
(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2006)