The Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the upper and middle reaches of the Pearl River have been rapidly urbanized and industrialized in recent years, leading to a rise in the amount of urban rubbish to the detriment of the land, rivers and atmosphere.

Refuse dumps and special plants in most cities treat garbage to make it harmless, with 5,800 tons of wastes being burnt, buried or made into fertilizers on a daily basis.

He Suping, a woman engineer with the water resources department in Guangxi said, it is imperative for the autonomous region to treat sewage wastes to protect the area's karst terrain and rain water which brings contact between groundwater and surface water, making groundwater more vulnerable to pollution.

The Xijiang River, a branch of the Pearl River which runs from Guangxi to neighboring Guangdong province, provides fresh water for a number of riverside cities such as Macao, Zhuhai, Zhongshan and Zhaoqing, so Guangxi must begin to treat garbage promptly to protect the water sources, said Liu Chen, a senior engineer with the Ministry of Water Resources.

The government 2001-2006 plan to spend billions of yuan to turn wastes harmless has been mainly financed by national debt payments and overseas investment. So far wastes treatment projects have received a total of 400 million yuan (US$48 million) from national debts and 60 million yuan (US$7.22 million) from overseas loans.

(Xinhua News Agency August 27, 2002)