"Cesspool" - Water In Chinese Reservoir Key To S-N Water Transfer Plan Unfit Even For Plants
DANJIANGKOU Reservoir, a key player in China's huge water diversion project to quench the thirst of Beijing and about 20 other northern cities, has become a "cesspool" due to rampant discharge of sewage into its tributaries.
The reservoir, located in the border cities of the central provinces of Hubei and Henan, is due to supply water to the northern cities next year, but the China Central Television reported that its waters are not even fit to be used for agricultural irrigation.
Though official data showed that the water was safe enough for drinking, Zhao Zhangyuan, an official from Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Science, said the hydrology bureau declared it fit for drinking because it lacked the indicators for testing. Zhao said, sarcastically, that if the water was good enough for even swimming it should be regarded as good news.
The CCTV report found that reckless dumping in the Hanjiang River, a major water resource for the reservoir, resulted in severe pollution. Hanjiang is the biggest tributary of the Yangtze, China's longest river. Trash and animal corpses are a common sight in Shending River, an upper reach of Hanjiang, in rural areas in Shiyan City in Hubei Province, despite the government spending hundreds of millions of yuan to clean up the river.
EDIT
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/nsp/World/2013/06/20/Reservoir%2Bdeclared%2Bsewage%2Bcesspool/
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