In a latest inspection on 10 sightseeing cruises shuttling along the Huangpu, administration officers found all of them either had no containers or were equipped with containers smaller than standard to hold sewage produced by the vessels.

However, each cruise generates 10 liters of domestic sewage a day on average. Most of it is just dumped into the river without treatment.

Another spot-check conducted early this year unveiled a worse situation.

Seventy-five percent of ships over 3,000 tonnages sailing in the Huangpu seldom use their sewage treatment facilities, while most sub-3,000-tonnage boats had no such facilities.

"With the daily traffic flow reaching 100,000 ships on the river, about 800,000 liters of sewage is estimated to be directly discharged into the water everyday, posing a serious environment hazard," said Zhou Fangzheng of the administration.

However, many ship owners don't think it is such a big problem.

"We never pour oil into the river, that's enough. Since waterways have a self-cleaning ability, how can household sewage pollute the water," asked a boat owner who declined to be identified.

In fact, oil, noxious liquids, household sewage and garbage from ships are the top Huangpu pollutants, Zhou said.

In China, all sewage from ships should first be collected in a temporary container on board, then treated at garbage plants before being discharged.

"However, since most small boats in China were built decades ago, their sewage treatment equipments cannot meet current standards," Zhou said, adding "many small boats don't even have temporary containers."

The Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau said it's hard to curb the pollution since there's no detailed law to define punishment.

According to a 1997 local regulation on ship pollutants, violators can only be fined up to 1,000 yuan (US$120).

(eastday.com July 5, 2003)