More efforts to deal with Wuxi water crisis

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Source: CCTV.com | 06-01-2007 13:26

Officials investigate a blue-green algae that has infested Taihu Lake, the source of drinking water for millions of people in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi in this undated photo. [Photo: Oriental Morning Post]

More than a million people in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi, Jiangsu province are still being threatened by a water crisis. The quality of their drinking supplies has been hit by an outbreak of blue-green algae.

The water is putrid. And the price of bottled water has skyrocketed.

This is what people in Wuxi are going through as the water crisis erupted Tuesday, making the city's tap water undrinkable.

It was caused by build up of algae near one of Wuxi's major water plants.

The pollution resulted in panic buying of bottled water prompting the price of water to rise six times by Wednesday.

Water has become a concern for every one.

Waitress, said, "When customers arrive, they usually ask what kind of water we use. If we tell them we use tap water, they leave immediately."

Local authorities are closely monitoring supplies of bottled water and have bought in more bottled water from neighboring cities. They have also imposed a ban on water price hikes.

And various measures have been taken to clean the water as soon as possible.

Water from the nation's longest river is flowing into Taihu Lake to dilute the pollution. And a large amount of active carbon and potassium permanganate has been pumped into the lake in an attempt to purify the water.

The Taihu basin covers an area of nearly 40,000 square kilometers in East China with a population of over 30 million.

Ye Jianchun, director-general, Taihu basin authority, said, "In order to guarantee the water supply of the cities near Taihu Lake, we will closely supervise how factories are dealing with their waste. Pumping pollution directly to the lake is strictly prohibited."

Blue-green algae is a form of aquatic plant that occurs naturally in rivers and lakes. When the number of algae cells increase, it starves the water of oxygen and threatens the survival of fish and seriously reduces water quality.

The water level of Taihu Lake is at its lowest in 50 years because of high temperatures and lack of rainfall. This combined with pollution from fertilizers has led excessive nutrients in the water, causing the blue-green algae to spread rapidly.

Experts warn if effective measures are not taken the algae threat could last for 5 months.

Editor:Du Xiaodan