An emergency response drill to test systems to deal with pollution in Shanghai's Huangpu River was carried out by the city's water environment management team on Monday -- World Environment Day. The drill demonstrated that Shanghai was capable of responding to and dealing rapidly with river pollution incidents. 

In the drill, a cargo boat carrying 220 tons of goods capsized after colliding head on with an empty cargo vessel in the Huangpu River. Goods floated in the water, fuel from the boats leaked and formed an oil slick covering an area of 150 square meters and pieces of wreckage floated on the water surface. 

The emergency response drill to prevent river pollution immediately swung into action led by the Shanghai Water Environmental Development Co. Ltd. Minutes after the "accident", two emergency response boats came steadily upstream towards the oil slick.

The two boats kept abreast of each other and dragged a 200-meter-long U-shaped oil barricade between them. Soon after they'd reached the spot and deployed the barricade, the oil slick had been stopped from spreading further.

Trained cleaners then started to retrieve the oil with special devices. Another vessel close to the pollution barricade started to spray dispersant to deal with any oil which may have found its way past the barricade. In about ten minutes the cleaning operation was successfully concluded.

Immediately after this job had been handled, four wreckage-collecting boats started to collect the debris. Initially the crews used automatic garbage collectors and then retrieved what was left manually. In just eight minutes this part of operation was completed.

The drill, besides showcasing Shanghai's ability to cope with river pollution incidents, also signaled the city's determination to improve the city's water environment before the 2010 World Expo.

Zhuang Yongxiang, head of the Shanghai Water Environmental Development Co. Ltd said that all the cleaner boats will be improved. In 2007 the first yacht-shaped cleaner boat will work in the Huangpu River. The cost of these vessels is three times that of those currently in use.

(China.org.cn by Wind Gu, June 7, 2006)