Rubbish Piles are Polluting a Lake in China

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Rubbish Piles are Polluting a Lake in China

20,000 tonnes of garbage illegally dumped on island as typhoon season approaches 

Rubbish has piled up on a lakeshore in the famously beautiful Chinese city of Suzhou, threatening water supply contamination as typhoon season approaches. 

piles rub.jpgPolice detained 12 people and eight cargo ships on July 1 for shipping waste from nearby Shanghai and illegally dumping it on Xishan island, which sits in Lake Tai in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, according to the country’s official Xinhua news agency. The port used for dumping is connected to a drug rehabilitation centre on the island.

China’s government has prioritised environmental protection in its latest five-year plan and stiffened penalties for polluters. But the latest incident highlights enforcement problems in a country already ravaged by 30 years of rapid industrialisation.

“Incidents such as this one in Shanghai, where someone gets caught, are only a minority,” said Liu Chunlei, head of Qingyue Environmental Protection Information Technology Service Center, a non-profit organisation sponsored by the Shanghai government. “It’s not only construction and household waste that gets illegally dumped. There are also dangerous products such as medical waste.”

Nearly 3,000 dead pigs were found in a suburban river in 2013. Last year, the collapse of a pile of construction waste in Shenzhen sparked deadly landslides.

The trash pile was only 2km from a water collection point and if contamination spreads, it would “seriously influence” the safety of drinking water for the city of 6.7m. 

The dumping allegedly began in mid-June. 

A work crew has covered the mixture of construction and household waste with an 8,000 sq m tarpaulin fastened to steel reinforcing bars in an attempt to contain it. 

Caixin cited an anonymous source saying that the port was operated in part by a private company that collects waste from construction sites in Shanghai and hires trucks and ships to transport it to disposal points.

Source: Financial Times

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