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Tackling SZ's shame
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深圳斥巨资治理河流污染
Dong Haitao
THERE are more than 160 rivers of different sizes winding through Shenzhen. But as the population has exploded and factories have mushroomed, many of them have become contaminated to an embarrassing degree.
Pollution of the city's rivers, not a new problem in the special economic zone, is once again being addressed by deputies to the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress. With the backing of the city's law-making body, the local government is considering taking concrete measures to clean up the city's rivers.
Embarrassing situation
On January 9, the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress met together for the first time this year to examine practices and policies concerning the city's serious water pollution problem.
On the same day, more than 60 deputy members from various fields were organized to inspect many of the city's polluted waterways. Witnessing so many shallow riverbeds, silted waterways, and dark, stinking aqueducts was a disturbing experience.
Dr Song Qiang, director general of Shenzhen Environmental Bureau's monitoring station, told reporters disappointedly that actually not one of the city's major rivers is clean.
Concerned statistics singled out the Buji River, which flows through the city's downtown area and joins the Shenzhen River at Fishermen's Village near Luohu Checkpoint, as the most polluted one in Shenzhen.
The river, which collects untreated industrial waste water and rubbish from hundreds of enterprises nearby and the domestic sewage of over 100,000 people in Buji township, is black and foul-smelling.
Not only the rivers are polluted. Even the city's vast offshore areas have been hit. The sea between Nantou and Bao'an, into which the Xinzhen River and Pearl River run, also looks and smells unpleasant. Fish and shrimp have long been wiped out by pollution, and fishermen have to go out to deep waters to stand any chance of catching fish.
An inland tourist who came to Shekou hoping to see the "blue" sea for the first time in her life once told reporters that she was totally startled and disgusted by the stinking, murky swill she found there.
Who's to blame?
The city's environmental protection bureau recently revealed that, apart from a large amount of industrial waste, phosphorous detergents have also been taking a heavy toll on the city's waterways.
Insiders said that the city's farms, which do not account for a significant proportion of Shenzhen's economy and use little phosphorous fertilizer, should not be seriously blamed.
However, Shenzhen residents, local enterprises, the service sector and other manufacturers, cannot dodge their responsibilities.
When talking about pollution, many assume the culprits are environmentally-unfriendly enterprises.
"Most residents may not realize that they pollute rivers, lakes and seas just by cleaning themselves, their homes and their clothes," Song said.
Many deputy members to the city's people's congress pointed out that concerned municipal departments should shoulder a large amount of blame due to their apparent ignorance of the decline in water quality and their lack of action to improve the situation.
"As the first special economic zone and one of the most active export-oriented economies in the country, Shenzhen has achieved a lot to build itself into a modern metropolis during the past years, but the city lags behind in curbing water pollution," said Zhao Congren. "If rivers can not be completely cleaned, the city's sustainable development of economy will finally turn out to be a castle in the air."
Zhang Yuqing, vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress, said the main reason which caused water pollution was the city's backward planning. "For many years, the measures taken by concerned bureaus to curb water pollution have not been in accordance with the city's overall development," he said.
According to a recent survey, most people in the city do not know how to protect water sources.
Another deputy member, Ouyang Sisong, pointed out that more than three billion yuan (US$363.3 million) has been injected by the local government over the past five years in curbing water pollution. "However, an effective mechanism has not yet been established in the city to audit and supervise the usage of money. Even we legislators do not know where or how such a large sum of special fund has been used up," he said.
Li Guangzhen, former Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress, suggested that curbing river contamination was not the sole responsibility of local government. "Various local enterprises, foreign and civilian capitals and funds from other channels should also be encouraged to inject in the cleaning of rivers. Much more than that, social awareness to keep water sources clean should also be enhanced among local residents," he said.
Measures
In order to pull the city out of its shameful pickle, Shenzhen recently declared war on water pollution and set out the goal of making the city's rivers clear again.
Zhang Gaoli, secretary of the Shenzhen Municipal Committee of the CPC and the city's top legislator, has said repeatedly that some serious problems exist in the city's environmental protection mechanisms. He urged bureaus concerned to give priority to sustainable development and protection of water sources.
It is said that a thorough clean-up scheme has been drawn up. According to the scheme, by the year of 2005, 100 per cent of the city's source waters for drinking purpose will reach the hygienic standard set by the State Council, and the water quality of some big rivers that flow through Shenzhen to neighbouring cities will reach the hygienic standard set by Guangdong Province. The water quality of other rivers will have to meet the standard for sightseeing purposes.
It is roughly estimated that a total of 7.3 billion yuan (US$876 million) will be injected for the clean-up programme. Local government will allocate part of it, and the rest will be obtained from such sources as bank loans, foreign capital and other channels.
That large sum of money will be used mainly to curb pollution of six most fouled rivers. Of these six, three are in the special economic zone, namely the Futian, Xinzhou and Buji Rivers; the other three are outside the zone: the Guanlan, Longgang and Pinshan Rivers.
To spread awareness of environmental protection among local residents, newspapers, television and radio broadcasters and other media are asked to strengthen such publicity.
Much more than that, in the coming five years, 69 "eco-schools" schools and seven educational bases are also expected to be set up in the city, thus making sure primary and middle school students more aware of the importance of environmental protection.
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