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Four-fifths of Yellow River polluted
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-05-24 23:58
Nearly four-fifths of Yellow River are polluted, China News Service reported
Tuesday sources with the Yellow River Conservancy Committee as saying.
According to a water quality monitoring initiated in 1975, water quality of
tributary better than the 3rd category, which is qualified for drinking water,
breeding aquatics, fishery and swimming, accounted for 60 percent of the total
length of the Yellow River in 1980s. By the end of 1990s, the percentage lowered
to 40 percent. This March, a government report said as much as 72.3 percent
of the water in the Yellow River has dropped below the 3rd category.
It is estimated that the economic loss caused by pollution of Yellow River
annually totaled about 11.5 billion to 15.6 billion yuan (about 1.39 billion to
1.89 billion US dollars). Since 1993, the Yellow River has witnessed more than
40 pollution incidents.Experts indicated that the rapid increase of the sewage,
the unqualified discharge of waste water and the misuse of fertilizer all
worsened the situation of the water body. In addition, such factors as the
degeneration of the water, the decrease of precipitation and dilution of the
water body also led to the degradation of the water quality. The
5,464-kilometer Yellow River runs through nine provinces and autonomous regions
and enters the Bohai Sea in north China, forming a valley of 752,000 square
kilometers and watering 12 percent of China's 1.3 billion population and 15
percent of farmland.However, excessive development has resulted in serious
shortage of water resources. The water resources development and utilization
rate along the Yellow River valley is as high as 70 percent, much higher than
the internationally recognized warning level of 40 percent.
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