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65% of city’s waterways ‘heavily polluted’
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Over half of the city’s waterways are heavily polluted, according to a newly released report by the local environmental authority.
The Shanghai Environment Monitoring Center tested 100 spots in the city and found only 10 percent of the waterways were either excellent or good quality. Sixteen percent were moderately polluted, and the remaining 65 percent were heavily polluted.
Water flowing in 24 heavily polluted waterways was reported to be dark and stinking.
Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau said it would work with the district authorities and water affairs departments to clean the mess and come up with a method to regularly inspect the waterways.
Apart from the major waterways like the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek, Shanghai has about 26,000 watercourses. A large number of them are located in suburban villages, while many don’t even have a name.
According to Wei Huajun, director of Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau, the inspected areas were selected after requests by citizens and local water authority’s recommendations. “Water quality in Shanghai’s major rivers and creeks have been under control but there is still a lot of work to do on the smaller waterways,” said Wei. “The 100 samples were collected from different parts across the city, which gave us a general idea of the overall situation.”
The report said industrial and agriculture sewage, residential sewage, as well as discharge from government-owned pumping stations were the major causes of pollution. Waste discharge from livestock and poultry breeding was rampant in the villages.
The heavily polluted waterways are located in Xuhui, Changning, Putuo, Baoshan, Songjiang and Jiading districts.
The most seriously polluted ones are Nenjiang River in Yangpu District, Shengzhaibang in Baoshan District, and waterways in Pudong’s Xuanqiao Town, Xinchang Town, Hangtou Town, Heqing Town as well as in suburban Fengxian, Minhang, Jinshan and Qingpu districts.
The water quality in Huangpu River and the mouth of the Yangtze River had improved slightly from last year.
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