China's polluted ground water

China’s pollution problem goes further than the air

Not only does China have a recent issue of extremely high air pollution, but there are now findings that report the water quality is just as bad, if not worse.  The latest data collected on water quality reports that 90-percent of China’s ground-water is polluted.  Additionally, a recent study of 118 cities across China finds that 64 percent of the cities have “severely-polluted” ground water, and only 3 percent of the cities studied had a measurement of “clean” water.  The main source of the water pollution comes from paper factories and their lack of proper disposal of chemical-rich, used water.  

Polluted drinking water is linked to higher rates of cancer, so it is a major societal issue that needs to be fixed.  Local governments throughout China are taking action to correct this severe health hazard.  They have begun to lock wells so people will not drink the contaminated water.  A biological clean-up system has been put into effect and so far they are seeing good results.  "After we treated the river water, our statistics show that cancer and congenital endocrine diseases fell by around 90 percent," says environmental activist Huo Daishan. 

When ground water becomes polluted, it affects several areas of the surrounding environment.  Polluted water is dangerous for human health because of its linkage to countless cases of cancer.  Polluted ground water also becomes useless for the watering of crops, which has a major impact on the economics of the surrounding areas.  If farmers cannot use the water for watering their crops, they have to seek elsewhere or lose their crop, which is most likely the case because of minimal finances.    

Another cause of this high water pollution is due to the weak quality requirements that are not being enforced.  There are requirements of how you are to dispose and transfer waste residues, but they are not implemented.  However, it is still illegal to allow waste to seep into the ground water. 

Carly Taylor

February 22, 2013  3:09 PM

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/water-02182013150415.html