Water Quality Major Priority

Tuesday July 3, 2007

Water Quality Major Priority

THE management of the country’s fresh water supplies should now be a major national priority and handled as a “state project,” Premier Wen Jiabao said.

Wen’s comments come after a string of algae outbreaks tainted drinking water supplies.

Since May, blue-green algae outbreaks have been reported in eastern Taihu Lake, Chaohu Lake and south-western Dianchi Lake.

Pollution has largely been to blame.

“We need to take environmental management of the three lakes as a state project and put it at a more prominent, pressing and important position,” Wen said at a meeting over the weekend on pollution control work of the three lakes in Wuxi, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province.

“We should tackle the problem with a scientific approach, good leadership, and high standards and confidence,” he said.

The priority was to protect the lakes from further pollution and ensure the safety of drinking water for the local residents, Wen said.

At the meeting, Wen instructed local officials to “strengthen supervision and ban factories from discharging pollutants into the lakes.”

He also urged strengthened efforts to draft regulations on the environmental protection of the three lakes.

Stung by a series of water crises, China will adopt a new national compulsory drinking water safety standard from this month to secure safe water supplies for citizens.

The new standard is the first amendment to the outdated former one, enacted in 1985.

According to the amendments, a total of 106 parameters have been developed.

“Safe drinking water is vital to people’s health and, to a great extent, important to social stability as it’s one of the primary and basic needs for human survival,” said Wang Xuening, deputy director-general of the Bureau of Health Supervision under the Ministry of Health. – China Daily / Asia News Network