Guangdong Faces Serious Water Pollution

Story Filed: Thursday, July 27, 2000 9:47 PM EST

GUANGZHOU (July 28) XINHUA - Guangdong Province in south China will focus on coordinating a massive pollution treatment program this year, according to sources with the provincial government.

Twenty billion-yuan (1.3 billion US dollars) for the "Blue Water Engineering Program" started in 1997 in the province.

Although 89.4 percent of industrial plants in the province have met the state pollution discharge requirements, some major polluters still have their engines roaring.

A chemical plant in Jiangmen City in the province was recently found by environmental authorities to have discharged 140,000 tons of unprocessed sewage annually into the Xijiang River.

Residential sewage has become a major source of pollution. Only 12 percent of Guangdong's 3.1 billion tons of annual residential sewage is treated.

Copyright XINHUA NEWS AGENCY

http://library.northernlight.com/FD20000727620000075.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0#doc

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), July 27, 2000