The State Environment Protection Administration (SEPA) announced the country’s first ever environmental emergency measures yesterday, to check worsening pollution in China’s third largest river and protect drinking water supplies for 150 million people.

"Water quality in the Huaihe is worsening due to serious pollution and a sharp drop in water flow. The water in some parts is no longer safe for drinking," said Pan Yue, SEPA vice director, at a press conference in Beijing.

According to the SEPA, water flow in the Huaihe plummeted more than 30 percent in the first quarter of the year, the dry season, and pollutants are accumulating in the river.

Water quality at 86 monitoring points in 56 tributaries of the Huaihe are rated 5 on China's water quality scale, which goes from 1 to 5, with 5 being the worst.

Pan said the measures include ordering heavily polluting enterprises to cut production or reduce discharge of pollutants by more than 30 percent.

The move will involve at least 168 industrial enterprises in the middle and lower reaches of the Huaihe and will last until the flood season in July, he said.

Meanwhile, the SEPA asked localities along the river to ensure sewage treatment plants operate normally. Many plants along the river seldom run due to high costs and shortages of funds.

Pan attributed the pollution in the Huaihe mainly to local protectionism, the mushrooming of polluting enterprises and environmental laws’ lack of teeth.

Many local governments paid more attention to "economic growth figures" than to sustainable development, and gave tacit support to polluting enterprises, he said.

He said local environmental protection departments do not have the power to shut down heavily polluting enterprises.

"They can only fine them between 100,000 yuan (US$12,000) and 1 million yuan (US$121,000), far below the cost of installing and operating pollution treatment facilities," he said.

Pan pledged that despite the difficulties, the SEPA will continue its fight against pollution along the Huaihe.

The Huaihe runs through Henan, Shandong, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces in central and east China.

(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2005)