China to spend $4.8 bln to clean Three Gorges water
Date: 03-Dec-01
Country: CHINA
The money would be used to erect more than 260 waste-water treatment plants and some 200 garbage facilities, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Facilities would also be set up to collect waste from ships on the Yangtze river, while companies causing serious pollution in its upper reaches would be forced to shut down, it said.
"If the rubbish is left inside the reservoir, the pollution could become worse and normal operation of the hydropower station will be affected," Xinhua quoted a State Environmental Protection Administration official as saying.
More than six million tonnes of rubbish and nearly 10 million tonnes of solid industrial waste are dumped into the Three Gorges area and the upper reaches of the Yangtze every year, the China Daily said.
At least 30 million tonnes of solid industrial waste have already piled up on the banks of the river, it said.
The 204 billion yuan Three Gorges project, which began construction in 1993 and is expected to be completed in 2009, has faced both domestic and foreign criticism.
To make way for the project, about 1.13 million villagers along the Yangtze river will be resettled by 2009 and numerous ancient relics will be submerged.
