Water pollution survey in the Yellow River Basin: The "Mother River" has become a "three hazards"
In late May, reporters conducted interviews on both sides of the Yellow River in Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi and other provinces and witnessed with their own eyes Witnessed the current situation of water pollution in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River and its increasing harm. With the increase in urban industrialization, pollution in the Yellow River Basin has formed a severe situation in which point source and non-point source pollution exist, domestic pollution and industrial emissions are superimposed, and various old and new pollution and secondary pollution are compounded with each other. The degree of pollution in the Yellow River has far Even worse than the Huaihe River. The polluted Yellow River has seriously harmed about 160 million urban and rural people in northwest and China, and agriculture, rural areas and farmers have suffered the most.
From Qinghai, through Gansu, Ningxia, and to Inner Mongolia, highly polluting industrial enterprises such as energy, heavy chemicals, nonferrous metals, and papermaking are located along the Yellow River, and the amount of wastewater discharge is increasing year by year. Due to serious delays in pollution control and low sewage treatment rates, many companies have failed to meet discharge standards, and some companies have repeatedly banned illegal discharges, resulting in an increasing amount of wastewater discharged into the Yellow River every year. With the acceleration of the development process of the western part of the country, the old high-pollution projects have not been completely controlled, and new high-pollution projects have been launched in the west. Some polluting enterprises from the east have moved into the west, exacerbating the pollution of the Yellow River.
According to the 2004 "China Environmental Statistics Annual Report", the wastewater discharge in the Yellow River Basin reached 3.95 billion tons, an increase of 1.38 billion tons compared with 2000; the annual discharge of the main pollutant COD has accounted for 13.3% of the country’s total emissions.
Nearly all agricultural water sources in the Ningxia Irrigation District located in the upper reaches of the Yellow River come from the Yellow River. In recent years, as a large number of high-energy-consuming and high-polluting enterprises in Ningxia and upstream areas have started construction and put into production, a large amount of industrial wastewater that does not meet the discharge standards has been directly discharged into the Yellow River diversion branch canal, resulting in some irrigation areas in some individual periods of time. Wastewater irrigation.
Industrial pollutants pollute water bodies, and polluted water bodies destroy the agricultural ecological environment. In some areas of the Yellow River Basin, crop yields are reduced or even eliminated due to sewage irrigation. Last year, Song'an Village in Jiexiu City, Shanxi Province used polluted Fen River water to irrigate its fields, causing the death of 200 acres of corn and poplar trees. In 2002, nearly 100 acres of wheat in Dongzhuang Village, Ping'an County, Haidong Prefecture, Qinghai Province, were irrigated with polluted Huangshui and burned alive. Villagers told reporters: "Now when we use Huangshui to irrigate the fields, we must first check the water in the river. If there is too much water, we dare to pour it. If there is too little water, if we pour it into the ground, the seedlings will be burned to death."
According to Water Conservancy Experts from the Yellow River Commission of the Ministry of Agriculture estimate that the current irrigation area along the Yellow River has grown to 110 million acres, accounting for 90% of the total water consumption of the Yellow River. Yellow River water pollution not only causes the quality of crops to decline, but also causes the scrapping of some farmland water conservancy facilities, causing losses to agriculture of up to 3.3 billion yuan per year.
Most sewage treatment plants are exposed to the sun
Currently, 25 sewage treatment plants have been built in 8 provinces in the Yellow River Basin, with a daily treatment capacity of 2.17 million tons, while the actual daily treatment capacity is only 86.8 million tons, the urban domestic sewage treatment rate in the basin is only 13%, 13 percentage points behind the national average.
Zhao Weimin, director of the Gansu Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau, said that as the only provincial capital city where the Yellow River passes through the city, Lanzhou City’s current sewage pipe network penetration rate is only 12.2%. The small sewage treatment and collection capacity is far from being able to handle the increasing amount of urban sewage, resulting in dense sewage pipes and ditches along the Yellow River, and a large amount of domestic sewage being discharged directly into the Yellow River.
The reporter’s investigation found that the construction and operation of urban sewage treatment plants in the Yellow River Basin lags behind. First, most local governments in the Yellow River Basin are not very enthusiastic about building sewage treatment plants; second, the implementation of the market-oriented mechanism for sewage treatment plants slow. Urban sewage treatment fees in the Yellow River Basin are low, collected late, and are not widely collected, and some areas even do not collect them. Third, it is common for urban sewage treatment plants to have unmatched pipe networks. The actual treatment capacity is far from meeting the design requirements, and the effluent quality is not up to standard, making some sewage treatment plants in fact become sewage discharge sites.
Weinan City, Shaanxi Province is the city located at the lowermost reaches of the Wei River, where the Wei River flows into the Yellow River.
Weinan City invested 120 million yuan to build the Chengdong Sewage Treatment Plant, which was completed early last year. However, due to lack of operating expenses, it only ran on trial for one month and then ceased operation. Although nearly 50,000 tons of sewage generated in urban areas every day are collected in sewage treatment plants, they are still discharged into rivers without treatment. The sewage treatment project has become a "sunbathing" project.
Li Xiaolian, deputy director of the Shaanxi Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau, said that five large and medium-sized cities along the Wei River in Shaanxi, including Baoji and Xi'an, have basically built at least one sewage treatment plant, but all of them are idle or "not full" problem.
Stinky water enters the village, poisonous water irrigates the ground, and dirty water enters the stomach. The Yellow River water has become the "three hazards"
Nowadays, it is the rice transplanting season along the upper reaches of the Yellow River that is about to end. Villagers in Minle Village, Silong Town, Baiyin City, Gansu Province stand beside their rice fields every day, anxious. Villagers in Minle and surrounding Jinshan villages have used Yellow River water for irrigation for generations. But what makes the villagers cry is that in the past two years, seedlings have been burned due to watering almost every year. In late May, the villagers transplanted rice seedlings for the third time this year, and all the seedlings from the previous two times had been burned to death. Looking at the thick foaming water in the field, Wang Tailiang, a villager in Minle Village, said that rice has always been their ration and source of income. However, in recent years, rice cultivation has failed. Farmers in the village have dug ponds to raise fish. As a result, last fall there were All the fish in the Yellow River died, resulting in a loss of more than 100,000 yuan. "If the fish are not well raised and the rice is not alive, how can we survive?" Wang Tailiang said.
The Yellow River enters Baiyin from Lanzhou and gathers a large number of smelting, coking, chemical and other enterprises and domestic sewage in Baiyin City. It flows through Silong Town, Beiwan Township and Jingyuan County of Baiyin City, involving There are more than a dozen villages along the way. Local villagers not only rely on Yellow River water for irrigation, but also directly drink the Yellow River water that has undergone simple sedimentation. "There are often white lumps in the pots after using river water. I often have diarrhea and headaches after drinking the water. The water has a strong salty taste, and on certain days every week, oily flowers can be seen floating in the water storage cellar at home. Villagers I prefer drinking rainwater," said Duan Xingping, a villager in Zhuangkou Village, Dalu Township, Jingyuan County.
The reporter learned from the outpatient department of Daluxiang Health Center in Jingyuan County that in several villages in Daluxiang that drink Yellow River water, gastrointestinal diseases and headaches are very common, and strange illnesses with no known cause are even more common. many. "It must be related to drinking water, but I haven't heard of anyone testing the water quality. We usually treat undiagnosed headaches as a cold, and use antibiotics repeatedly for diarrhea until the diarrhea stops," said Ma Jun, a rural doctor.
Along the Yellow River, farmers who drink water directly from the Yellow River have become a "high-risk group" for various strange diseases. In recent years, the number of villagers aged 40 to 60 suffering from cerebral thrombosis, paralysis and cancer in Niudu Village, Linyi County, Shanxi Province has increased year by year due to polluted water environment. The villagers said in a complaint that due to the contaminated water source, 42 people had died of strange diseases by June last year, and there are currently 28 people suffering from strange diseases. Wang Yongsheng, a student at Jinshan Village Central Primary School in Silong Town, Baiyin City, told reporters that among the 28 boys in his class, 20 have white hair. And there are many classmates who, like him, often have stomachaches and headaches.
On the one hand, farmers are suffering from the Yellow River sewage, and on the other hand, rural non-point source pollution caused by excessive application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has become the most difficult problem to control the Yellow River water environment pollution. Zhu Zhaoliang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that in the next few years, if effective measures are not taken, the "contribution rate" of non-point source pollution caused by crop cultivation and livestock and poultry breeding to water quality pollution will become increasingly prominent.
A Yellow River, a variety of "wandering data"; the downstream is busy with management, and the upstream is busy with sewage discharge; the main stream is tightly controlled, and the tributaries are easy to discharge sewage... What the reporter learned during interviews in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River and some of its tributaries in May These phenomena are like "strange circles", restricting the effectiveness of pollution control in the basin. Some environmental protection and water conservancy experts and local government leaders interviewed by the reporter called for the establishment of a "harmonious pollution control mechanism" in the Yellow River Basin to truly "cleanse" the mother river.
Downstream is busy with treatment and upstream is busy with sewage discharge
Dongfang Paper Group in Wugong County, Shaanxi Province is the largest local paper-making enterprise and the largest local source of industrial pollution. In May 2005, the State Environmental Protection Administration listed the "Oriental Paper Group Company's Weihe River Pollution Case" as one of the first batch of environmental violations cases listed for supervision.
In mid-May, the reporter came to Wugong County and found that the black water of the Weihe River was still flowing in the territory. The Weihui Canal and Qishui River, which flowed into the Weihe River in Wugong County, were stinky and filled with foam for miles. Some areas were foamy. About 1 meter above the water. People along the route told reporters that after the Oriental Paper Group was ordered to suspend production for treatment, the pollution from the paper mills in Wugong County had been reduced a lot, but the paper mills in Baoji City upstream continued to secretly discharge sewage.
Xu Yaohua, director of the Wugong County Environmental Protection Bureau, told reporters that regarding the water pollution problem in the upstream Baoji City, they have coordinated with the relevant departments of Baoji City through the superior authorities many times, but with little success. Xu Yaohua said: "The water source in the territory is black and smelly. The people are complaining and the authorities are putting pressure. It's really frustrating for the environmental protection department to be caught in the middle. Who wants to be scolded with a bad reputation? I also want to clear the water, but I am a little The director of the Wugong County Environmental Protection Bureau can't go to Baoji City to do some coordination, right?" Ma Qiming, deputy mayor of Lanzhou, also said in an interview with reporters that the government has spent a lot of time on the problem of industrial wastewater and domestic sewage polluting the Yellow River in Lanzhou. With great efforts to coordinate, the problem is gradually being solved, and the effect is obvious. However, the government finds it very difficult to deal with the problem that the upstream Huangshui River water has been in Class IV water for a long time.
The same pollution monitoring data are very different
To control pollution, we must first find out the "family background" of the pollution. However, during the interview, the reporter found that the Yellow River pollution monitoring provided by the two major departments of water conservancy and environmental protection The data is completely different. Figures from the 2004 "China Environmental Statistics Annual Report" provided by the State Environmental Protection Administration show that the wastewater discharge in the Yellow River Basin was 3.95 billion tons, of which industrial wastewater accounted for about 40% of the total and domestic sewage accounted for about 60% of the total; while the Ministry of Water Resources The document "Opinions on Limiting Total Sewage Discharge in the Yellow River" issued at the end of 2004 stated that "the wastewater discharge in the Yellow River Basin is 4.27 billion tons/year, of which industrial wastewater accounts for about 69% of the total and domestic sewage is about Accounting for 31% of the total." It can be seen from the comparison that the proportions of industrial wastewater and domestic sewage between the two departments are "worlds apart". As a result, the priorities in the Yellow River pollution control plans formulated by the two departments are also different.
There is only one Yellow River, but there are many numbers. Which one should be used as the benchmark? Various experts interviewed by the reporter disagreed. The unanimous view is that the state's water pollution in the Yellow River Basin should be monitored, managed and released by a unified department, and the authorized departments should abandon departmental interests.
Basin issues require comprehensive management
At present, pollution in the Yellow River Basin is gradually increasing, and water pollution problems across administrative regions are prominent. How to coordinate regional economic and social development and the sustainable use of major resources in the basin? Grassroots environmentalists suggest that the country should strengthen planning and legislation for the water environment, consider the management of the entire river basin, comprehensively control water, unify supervision, coordinate solutions, and upgrade from regional management to river basin management to solve the current problems including departmental wrangling and fragmented legislation. etc. issues.
In response to the various contradictions and interest entanglements that exist in the Yellow River pollution control, some environmental protection, water conservancy and water environment experts interviewed by the reporter have prescribed a "prescription" for establishing a "harmonious pollution control mechanism" in the river basin: to formulate a "harmonious pollution control mechanism" as soon as possible. "Yellow River Law", establish a reasonable mechanism for water resource protection and pollution prevention and control in the Yellow River Basin, regulate and manage the Yellow River in accordance with the law, revise the imperfect parts of the existing "Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law" and other relevant laws; establish a unified pollution monitoring, management and Information release system to avoid conflicts of interest and inadequate supervision caused by multi-departmental cooperation; establish a total amount of pollutant entering the river control system and a dual control system for water quality and quantity at provincial, municipal and county boundary sections to strengthen unified supervision of the Yellow River water environment protection, Establish an assessment system for total quantity control indicators and water environment quality indicators. In particular, we must increase cross-border water quality monitoring and assessment efforts and incorporate them into local government performance assessment indicators; establish a public participation mechanism, increase pressure on the government and enterprises, and effectively sanction illegal discharges of pollutants. , while strengthening the environmental access and elimination system, and increasing the prevention and control of industrial pollution; in the case of limited capital investment, priority is given to ensuring upstream pollution control, orderly and effective pollution control, ensuring that one section is treated well, and no spillage is avoided. The pepper-and-pepper approach creates a situation where spending money does not work or “spend a lot of money but get little results”