Sudden Ecological Disaster in Taihu Lake
Compels Closure of Small Chemical Plants   


An outbreak of blue algae in Taihu Lake, located in Jiangsu
province in the eastern region, one of the four biggest lakes
in China, on May 31st, 2007 led to the fouling of tap water
provided by the Taihu Lake to Wuxi City, which is adjacent to
the lake, and residents rushing to purchase purified water. Wuxi
Municipal Government called the incident a "sudden ecological
disaster" and took six urgent measures to cope with the matter.
This famous lake in the lower Yangtze River valley is less than
200 km due north of Shanghai.
    In the past decade, pollution of Taihu Lake has become more
serious, accompanied by more and more eutrophication. According
to expert analysis, there are three basic reasons for the
eutrophication of Taihu Lake. The first one is the drastic
increase of agricultural and domestic sewage. Second is the flow
of great quantities of un-treated industrial sewage into rivers,
causing serious pollution to medium and small cities in the
region and surrounding surface water, forming black water belts
and also spreading pollution to Taihu Lake through river
networks. Third is the development activities in a db around the
lake such as fish breeding, water conveyance and tourism,
causing a drastic increase of pollutants.
   Press departments of Wuxi City have offered this explanation
concerning the incident. The water level of Taihu Lake in
downtown areas of Wuxi this summer was the lowest in the past
fifty years. In addition there were also sustained high
temperature and little rain. The eutrophication of water in
Taihu Lake was aggravated. The combination of these factors led
to a severe infestation of blue algae and the concomitant
ecological problems. The quality of tap water sources was
affected to a certain extent.
   Just before the incident, during May 16-17, Anna K. Tibaijuka,
Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Director of
the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, paid a special
visit to Wuxi. She made a tour of projects for the treatment of
Taihu Lake water and the restoration of the ecological
environment and expressed her hope that Wuxi could apply for the
"prize of the United Nations human settlements."
   As early as August 9th, 2006 the Jiangsu Environmental
Protection Department reported that despite strenuous efforts
for a decade, the overall water environment quality in Taihu Lake
failed to attain the prescribed target. "Since 1995 Taihu Lake
has been regarded as a major focus for water pollution control
in China," said an official from the department. The Jiangsu
provincial government has spent more than RMB8.0 billion in the
past decade alone for efforts to control Taihu Lake water
pollution to meet the goals set by the Central Government in the
Tenth Five-year Plan (2001 - 2005). 176 water environment
comprehensive rectification projects including 77 sewage
treatment plants have been constructed. "The overall water
environment quality of Taihu Lake has however failed to attain
the prescribed target," said the official.
   From the 1980s to the mid-1990s township and village
enterprises in Taihu Lake developed rapidly, and a famous "South
Jiangsu Economic Mode" was formed. Most of these heavy-polluting
chemical, smelting and dyeing/printing enterprises had outdated
technology, obsolete equipment, poor management and inadequate
environmental protection practices. They discharged great
quantities of pollutants and created serious environmental and
ecological problems in Taihu Lake.
   These township and village enterprises usually got raw
materials locally and discharged sewage where it was produced.
They used environmental resources free of charge, or what they
paid was much lower than the cost of protecting and restoring
the environment. They shouldered no responsibility for the
environmental pollution and the ecological damage they caused.
   In the mid-1990s both the marketization and the urbanization
around Taihu Lake were further developed. The cost of
environmental resources was however still not included in the
economic development assessment system. Sectors with high water
consumption, high energy consumption and high pollution still
held a considerable proportion. Besides, the urban population
grew at a high rate and the environmental cost was seldom taken
into consideration in consumption. Discarding great quantities
of refuse aggravated the damage to environment.

More serous pollution in the next 5-10 years


According to a report prepared by the Environmental Protection
Department of Jiangsu, the market provided no ecological
protection, and government decisions supported development
without balancing the environmental costs. This is the social
and economic background for today's water environment problems
in Taihu Lake. The greater background sacrificing the
environment is to overcome the region's backward status, catch
up with advanced countries and pursue wealth.
   "The pollution control of Taihu Lake has already been given
more attention for years now. The concept, the capital input and
the progress all hold a leading position among China's major
river ecosystems. Why were the prescribed water quality targets
not attained after all these efforts?" According to an expert
in the Environmental Protection Department, the key is that two
outstanding problems have not been solved. One problem is that
the water quality treatment target is too optimistic and does
not objectively reflect the current circumstances. Although the
economy in Taihu Lake area grew rapidly during 1996-2005, the
foundation of the economy was weak and the per-capita GDP
remained low compared with advanced countries. As a result the
unrealistic water quality treatment targets could not be
realized.
   The other problem is that the accepted concept of water
pollution control remains "achieving pollution control by a
defined project only." There is a lack of awareness that
one-sided view of development is the root cause for
environmental pollution.
   "As a matter of fact, sewage treatment plants constructed in
urban areas are mainly intended to facilitate project promotion
and capital flow-in," said the expert. "They have become a refuge
for new industrial polluting sources. The total amount of
pollutants released simply has not been reduced by the
construction of urban sewage treatment plants." According to the
analysis made by the Jiangsu Environmental Protection
Department, Taihu Lake region is now faced with a choice between
the development model of recent years and sustainable
development. The old development concept will continue to
dominate in the short run, as long as the local GDP remains the
main index for evaluating the performance of officials. At the
beginning of this century the Taihu Lake area entered a period
of rapid urbanization. Based on the common pattern of
urbanization around the world, the rate in the Taihu Lake region
will double in the next ten - fifteen years and then a stage of
relatively stable development will come. The total amount of
pollutants in Taihu Lake will therefore likely increase further
in the next five or even ten years. The time for attaining the
targ