China’s Water Pollution
Recently, something shocking has happened in the Huangpu River, Shanghai’s main river. As is reported, more than 2000 dead pigs were thrown into the river without any proper procedures, which has caused damage to the water supply of Shanghai and places nearby. From this case, the problem of water pollution in China comes in the view of the public again. Actually, it seems that it never stops growing.
Even more worrying is that individual Chinese don’t know whether their water is safe to drink or not. A Chinese newspaper recently featured an interview with a married couple, both of whom are water experts in Beijing (available in English here). They stated that they hadn’t drunk from the tap in twenty years, and have watched the water quality deteriorate significantly over just the past few years, even while state officials claim that more than 80 percent of water leaving treatment facilities met government standards in 2011. (Southern Weekly)
There has been rural industrial growth in China almost outside central environmental management systems. Apart from a variety of new laws, regulations and guidelines, implementation gaps still exist. The current water pollution control system depends on a top-down approach to monitoring, control and supervision. Although this may work in cities where industries are spatially concentrated and pollution-monitoring systems are well developed, it does not work in the rural areas where water polluting industries are dispersed in villages and have close associations with local government officials. Water pollution control regulations can be applied to rural industries only to the degree that local government officials are able and pleased to implement environmental standards and exercise authority. (Science direct)
External assessments of China's water problems, and advices for policy solutions, often can’t recognize interrelated physical, institutional, historical-cultural, and ideologically-grounded contradictions in the water sphere, distinctive to China, that challenge Chinese policy makers in unique ways. As new market-based ways to regulate flood and drought prevention and control, water quality maintenance, enough water supply, and ecological support are being discussed and implemented; problems of overcoming deep-seated contradictions in the water economy compel searching review of policy assumptions and strategies which require reconsideration and modification of longstanding strategies and procedures for managing water resources. (Taylor)
[A concluding paragraph in your own words would be good.]
Works Cited [this section needs to be formatted according the the MLA system – see the example I sent you]
1 Environment Health Perspect. 1999 April; 107(4): 251–256.
PMCID: PMC1566519
Research Article
Water pollution and human health in China.
C Wu, C Maurer, Y Wang, S Xue, and D L Davis
2 Science direct,Journal of Environmental Management
Volume 86, Issue 4, March 2008, Pages 648–659
3 Water International
Volume 26, Issue 3, 2001 , Select Language▼Translator disclaimer
Contradictions and Challenges in China's Water Policy Development
DOI:10.1080/02508060108686925
Baruch Boxera
pages 335-341