Beijing: There are signs of hope for China’s notoriously polluted waterways.
A study published in Nature Geoscience has shown phosphorus pollution – a major cause of algal blooms – has fallen by a third in China’s lakes.
Share on Facebook SHARE Share on Twitter TWEET Link Researchers from China’s Renmin University, Peking University and Tianjin University, along with the Norwegian Water Research Institute, sampled water from 862 lakes.
The number of extremely polluted lakes fell by two-thirds between 2006 and 2014.
Ms Deng said a recent study by Greenpeace had found almost half of Chinese provinces didn’t meet the water quality targets set in the 2011-2015 Five-Year Plan.
A water pollution plan introduced by China’s State Council in 2015, covering the next five years, will focus on improving overall water quality, not merely eliminating pollutants, she said.
Share on Facebook SHARE Share on Twitter TWEET Link The Chinese government’s focus on fighting pollution, and the new pressure on officials to meet environmental goals, was brought into sharp focus by the recent shutdown of thousands of tourism businesses on Erhai Lake in Yunnan province.
Chinese media reported last week that instead of the usual throng of summer tourists in the streets, scores of red banners proclaiming "If Erhai lake is clean, Dali will thrive" dominate the streetscape.
Small business owners, many of whom were dubbed "smog refugees" after moving their families to Erhai’s shoreline from Beijing and Shanghai to escape air pollution, have been left without income.
According to the study in Nature Geoscience, improvements in sanitation facilities such as pipelines and waste water treatment plants were the major reason phosphorus levels had fallen in the lakes sampled.