The water quality at Dameisha beach in eastern Shenzhen, one of the city's most popular beaches, has deteriorated drastically because of excessive visitors this summer.

The water at the beach has been getting unclean and is not suitable for swimming due to worsening hygiene, a daily report by the city's marine and fishery environment supervision station was quoted by the Daily Sunshine as saying Saturday.

But this is not the case for its neighbor Xiaomeisha beach, which has been recording good-quality water, the report said. Xiaomeisha beach charges an entrance fee, while Dameisha is free to the public.

"For each day from July 11 to 14, the index for Xiaomeisha was 96, which means excellent," an employee surnamed Leng with the station was quoted as saying. "The figure was 52 for Dameisha during the same period, containing far excessive amount of bacteria. So many visitors are too much for the beach."

According to him, the water quality is rated excellent if the index is above 80, while a score of below 60 is bad.

More than 30,000 people have visited Dameisha daily in recent days due to the hot weather, with the previous weekend seeing 100,000. In comparison, Xiaomeisha has 10,000 visitors each day.

Dameisha beach has been reporting deteriorating water quality every summer in recent years, its management office said. "We had too many visitors."

Local residents can feel the difference too.

"In the past the water here was clear, fish could be seen swimming," Liao, who grew up in the neighborhood in Yantian District. "But it looks turbid now. It is terrible with huge crowds."

"People should care more about the environment," a man surnamed Li, a frequent visitor to the beach, said. "Please do not litter and do everything as you can to protect the nature. It does all of us good."

(Shenzhen Daily July 17, 2006)