China's Yellow River 10 pct sewage: group - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

China's Yellow River 10 pct sewage: group
Fri May 11, 2007 3:06AM EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - Untreated sewage from factory discharges and
urban centers now accounts for 10 percent of the Yellow River's flow,
a prominent Chinese non-governmental group said.

The volume of waste water flowing into the river, China's second
longest, doubled from 2 billion tonnes to 4.3 billion between 1980 and
2005, Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental
Affairs, a Beijing-based NGO, told the China Daily.

"It now accounts for about one-tenth of its total volume," Ma said.

The 5,464-km (3,395-mile) river supplies water to more than 150 million
people and irrigates 15 percent of the country's farmland, but has lost
a third of its fish species and is 70 percent unfit for drinking or
swimming, state media have reported.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSPEK26151720070511

---

Source: China Daily

Yellow River is 10% sewage: Official
By Wang Zhuoqiong (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-05-11 06:42

In the past 12 months, some 120 million tons of household sewage, mostly
untreated, have been released into the Yellow River in Lanzhou, capital
of Gansu Province in Northwest China, a report by China Central Television
(CCTV) said on Wednesday.

Lu Shaowen, director of the pollution control office of the Lanzhou
environmental protection bureau was quoted by the station as saying that
only about 3,300 tons of the effluent had been treated, and even that
failed to meet quality standards because of the city's out-of-date sewage
treatment facilities.

Tests showed that the levels of nitrogen and coliform in the water were,
respectively, 2.4 times and 42 times higher than the standard allows,
Lu said.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-05/11/content_870093.htm

[pepperbear]

1. Jesus Christ, what are we doing to ourselves? n/t

[populistdriven]

2. Chinese fish is delicious!

Write that on a label and drop off your Chinese Basa at the White House.

[sandnsea]

5. Just ask Alabama

Might be why Walmart just pulled Chinese catfish off their shelves.

[sandnsea]

3. Our computer parts don't help either

http://www.crra.com/ewaste/ttrash2/ttrash2/

[aquart]

4. China better get busy with the river clean up.

Or stop worrying about overpopulation for the next century.

[sandnsea]

6. Corporate responsibility??

Don't our corporations have the same responsibility to pay for clean up there as they do here?

Or at least used to here.

[hogwyld]

7. Or maybe they'll mutate into X-men! n/t

[phantom power]

8. Certain jokes regarding "sewage," "10%" and "yellow" suggest themselves.

But no. I choose not to go there.

Plus, the reality of it is about as funny as smallpox.