The investment is part of a 12-year project that began in 1998.

"It is a long-term and collective effort to thoroughly clean up Suzhou Creek. We have only made preliminary achievements during the first phase," Mayor Han Zheng said on Saturday.

The pollution in Suzhou Creek can be traced to 1910 and the stench and darkness of the creek was first noted in 1920. By 1978, the entire creek was severely polluted.

The first phase of the clean-up project, which was recently completed, cost 7 billion yuan and rid much of the waterway of its stench and darkness, according to government officials.

The second phase will involve further treatment of water in a 13.3-kilometer stretch near downtown, as well as six major tributaries and the construction of large areas of green land along the banks of the creek, officials said.

Zhang Xiaoguo, a deputy director of the Shanghai Suzhou Creek Rehabilitation Project Head Office, said, "Beginning this year, the city will start construction on a second floodgate at the conjunction of Suzhou Creek and the Huangpu River to better dilute the water pollution."

The current floodgate under the Wusong Road Bridge allows water from the Huangpu River into the creek, but doesn't allow creek water into the river. Officials didn't discuss the future of the current floodgate.

(eastday.com April 7, 2003)