The latest bad news for residents of the capital comes from Shanghai Daily via China Environmental News Digest:
POLLUTION is threatening Beijing’s future source of drinking water as factory discharges and untreated sewage seep into a reservoir planned for the capital’s use by 2010, water experts said.
The reservoir, in Danjiangkou City in Hubei Province, is part of the south-to-north water diversion project, which pumps water to the north since it receives less rainfall than the south.
Though the Danjiangkou Reservoir water meets national drinking standards, it is far from pure. Data showed the reservoir had reached the acceptable limit of pollutant concentrations. [Full Text]
Danjiakou is the planned starting point of China’s massive north-south water diversion project that aims to siphon water from the Yangtze and transport it to the parched northern regions.
