Chinese and Russian experts have begun an annual water quality examinations for four rivers and a lake across the border to strengthen pollution control.

Experts have taken samples from the ice-covered Heilongjiang, Wusuli, Ergune and Suifen rivers and Xingkai Lake for tests, according to the environment protection department of Heilongjiang Province, adding the joint operation may last for two weeks from February 25.

They would analyze the samples separately before exchanging data and comparing results. Chemical oxygen demand, contents of heavy metals, benzene, pesticides and riverbed mud are among the 40 indices to determine water quality.

China and Russia share about 3,500 kilometers of trans-border water bodies including the four rivers and the lake. Similar joint operations are also scheduled to be carried out at nine monitoring sites of the water bodies in June and August.

The two countries signed the Joint Monitoring Plan on Border Rivers in 2006, after a chemical spill contaminated the the Songhua River, the largest tributary of the Heilongjiang River, and forced the water supplies to 3.8 million people to be suspended for several weeks in 2005.

Under the plan, the two sides will operate the testing program for five years from 2007.

China has planned to invest 13.4 billion yuan (1.88 billion U.S. dollars) to launch 222 projects for the pollution control of the Songhua River, including treating industrial pollution sources and urban sewage and building recycling equipment.

Almost 40 percent of these pollution control projects had been completed or were well underway by the end of 2007, according to the websites of the State Environmental Protection Administration (www.zhb.gov.cn).

(Xinhua News Agency March 6, 2008)