Officials with the Jiangsu provincial Environmental Protection Bureau said the province will build 65 waste water treatment plants with a combined capacity of handling 1.66 million tons of waste water per day in cities and towns adjacent to the lake.
The lake faces worsening pollution due to massive inflows of industrial and agricultural waste from nearby areas.
Treatment centers for garbage and dangerous solid waste will be built in the four prosperous, rapidly industrializing cities of Changshu, Kunshan, Suzhou and Wuxi.
By 2002, major polluting industrial firms surrounding the lake, such as chemical plants, feather processing plants, pharmaceutical firms and dyeing plants, will be ordered to restructure their production to reduce pollutant discharge, officials said.
Sixty-two plants discharging huge amounts of phosphorous and nitrogen will be ordered to reduce their total discharge by a set date.
An excessive amount of phosphorous and nitrogen in the lake has been blamed for a rampant outbreak of algae in the lake, which threatens marine life.
Large amounts of algae can cause severe oxygen depletion, which can kill marine life and turn the lake into a foul-smelling, dead water body.
Among the measures to be taken in the drainage area of the lake, a vegetation belt of vines, shrubs and grass, measuring 300 kilometers by 500 meters, will be built around the water to reduce the inflow of materials harmful to the ecology.
The province also plans to limit aquatic farming in the lake and the use of chemical fertilizers in farmland in the vicinity.
(China Daily 10/06/2001)
