Polluted China rivers threaten "sixth" of population - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

Polluted China rivers threaten "sixth" of population
Mon Aug 27, 2007 3:02AM EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - Polluters along two of China's main
rivers have defied a decade-old clean-up effort, leaving
much of the water unfit to touch, let alone drink, and
a risk to a sixth of the population, state media said on
Monday.

Half the check points along the Huai River and its
tributaries in central and eastern China showed
pollution of "Grade 5" or worse -- the top of the dial
in key toxins, meaning that the water was unfit for
human contact and may not be fit even for irrigation,
national legislators were told.

Years of crackdowns and waste treatment investment
have reined in some of the worst damage to the Huai
and Liao Rivers, but industrial pollution remained far
too high, Mao Rubai, chairman of the National People's
Congress environment and resources protection
committee, said in a report delivered on Sunday.

The rivers posed a "threat to the water safety of one
sixth of the country's 1.3 billion population," the China
Daily said.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSPEK30589720070827

[kestrel91316]

1. Those bottled water producers must be delirious with joy......