Top Chinese environmental protection officials have listed water pollution control in the Songhua River’s drainage area as one of the key water pollution control and prevention projects in the country. It is soliciting suggestions for a five-year plan concerning the control of the river’s pollution from 2006 to 2010.
A stretch of potentially lethal polluted river water headed towards one of China’s biggest cities on Thursday after an explosion at a petrochemical plant, November 24 2005. [newsphoto] This is the first time the Songhua River’s pollution
has been raised as a key project, in the same category as the pollution control of China’s “three rivers and three lakes,” which includes the Huaihe River, the Haihe River, the Liaohe River, the Dianchi Lake, the Chaohu Lake and the Taihu Lake. These water systems are some of China’s most heavily polluted.Over the weekend, Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Environment Protection Administration (SEPA), vowed that the goal of the
project is “to let all people drink clean water,” Xinhua News Agency reports.