Latest News:  

English>>China Society

Action on pollution after swim challenge

(Shanghai Daily)

08:07, February 19, 2013

The river is highly polluted.

An environmental protection official was challenged to swim in a highly polluted river with 200,000 yuan (US$32,040) as a reward if he did.

In response, the official has pledged to build facilities to combat the pollution and to control population in the area.

Jin Zengmin, chairman of a glasses company in Hangzhou, asked Bao Zhenming, director of the environmental protection bureau in his hometown of Rui'an in Wenzhou City, to swim in a local river for just 20 minutes. Jin claimed pollution had caused cancers among many villagers living nearby.

He posted the challenge on his microblog at the weekend to raise awareness of the problem.

Jin claimed that shoe-making workshops along the river were discharging industrial sewage direct into the river as well as toxic gas into the air.

Seventeen residents among the 1,000 villagers died of cancer last year, Jin said.

Jin posted pictures showing lots of rubbish floating in the river and the water in parts of it turning white. He said he and his friends often swam in the river when they were young and when there were no workshops.

Bao phoned Jin on Sunday, saying it was his responsibility and promising to treat the river soon, Jin said.

Yesterday, Bao said: "The river has truly been polluted, but mainly by household garbage rather than industrial waste."

He denied that the cancer cases were related to the workshops because officials had found no industrial waste being discharged.

The pollution was mainly caused by an overexpansion of the migrant population in the area, he said. Some 40,000 citizens and 80,000 out-of-towners were living in the neighborhood, far exceeding the numbers the region could cope with.

He said many workers in about 100 labor-intensive workshops along the river were discharging household waste into the river.

Bao said officials would be clearing the waste on and along the river soon.

"The city government has built a garbage recycling plant and will put it into use this year. A new sewage treatment plant will also be built within three years," Bao said.

Jin Xiaokun, a neighborhood official, said illegal residential buildings along the river would be dismantled to control the migrant population.

We Recommend:

'Wedding' for two old men in Beijing

$16,000 splash to be washed emperor-style

So sleepy on way home in Spring Festival travel rush

Sweetest moment of 'mother-to-be'

Parents keep son alive with DIY ventilator

China's weekly story (2013.01.27-01.31)

Chinese New Year in country fair

A Taiwan student’s adventure in Beijing

Wedding planner: dealing with 'happiness' and 'love'

Email|Print|Comments(Editor:ChenLidan、Wang Jinxue)

Leave your comment0 comments

  1. Name

  

Selections for you


  1. Islet guards have dreams

  2. 'Golden Dragon Parade' held in Chinatown in U.S.

  3. Lunar New Year celebration held in Sydney

  4. Smog shrouds Beijing and some other cities

  5. Wedding of Lisu people in Sichuan

  6. Dancers get groove on Chongqing style

  7. World's rarest monkeys to be re-introduced

  8. Cute piggy without hind legs

  9. Hongyanhe nuclear power station in China

  10. Investors taking stock as fortunes improve

Most Popular

Opinions

  1. How to face wrestling's removal from Olympics?
  2. Discontents of demography
  3. Online ambitions could elude mid-level brands
  4. Human rights progress as a matter of fact
  5. Millions on the move
  6. US to withdraw from Middle East?
  7. Ensure fairness during festival travel rush
  8. Is the wolf really gone?

What’s happening in China

A 9-year-old son takes good care of his amputee mother: "adults have a priority over delicious meals"

  1. 63 sentenced over SW China pyramid selling
  2. Passenger plane emergency landing in NE China
  3. Guangzhou govt subsidizes sea burials
  4. 13 arrested for drug trafficking in SW China
  5. Experts to probe reservoir dam collapse