Northwest China's Lanzhou, known as one of the most polluted cities in the world, plans to spend 130 million yuan (US$16.9 million) this year to fight pollution in the Yellow River, which runs through the city.

 

 

The money will be used to upgrade the facilities of Yan'erwan Waste Water Treatment Plant, the largest in Lanzhou, expand the urban waste water pipe network and install monitoring devices to ascertain the city's main polluters, according to Wu Jide, vice mayor of Lanzhou City.

 

The Yellow River has a 152-km stretch in Lanzhou, including 45 kilometers in downtown Lanzhou. The river is the major water source for the city, which has an urban population of about two million.

 

The city discharged about 160 million tons of waste water into the river, including 42 million tons from industrial enterprises in 2006.

 

By 2010, 70 percent of waste water in the city will undergo treatment and industrial and household waste flowing to the river will meet environmental requirements, said Wu.

 

The 5,464-km-long Yellow River, running west to east in northern China, has been plagued by worsening pollution, with more than 66 percent of the water undrinkable, according to a report on Yellow River Water Resources released last year.

 

More than 4.35 billion tons of waste water was dumped into the Yellow River in 2005, about 88 million tons more than that of 2004, according to the report.

 

The country is planning to build six more automatic water quality monitoring stations along the river by 2010 to help control its worsening pollution situation.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2007)