| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
June 2 - A team of water pollution experts have succeeded in dispelling1 the unpleasant odor from the water supply of east China's Wuxi city, but authorities say the water is still not safe to drink.
Domestic supplies would resume soon, but the city's 2 million residents should continue to drink bottled water rather than risk the tap water, which was polluted by an algae2 bloom in the main water source. Wuxi Mayor Mao Xiaoping said a team led by Professor Zhang Xiaojian, of Beijing's Tsinghua University, succeeded in dispelling the stench produced by the blue-green algae at Taihu Lake with potassium permanganate, an oxidant. Workers also added active carbon powder at treatment plants. "It took Professor Zhang and his team 17 hours of trials to reach the right formula to eliminate the unpleasant odor," said Mao. Residents have been told to run their taps to clean the pipes. Wu Jianxuan, vice3 mayor of Wuxi, announced Friday that domestic tap water rates would be reduced by half in June in compensation. Both officials refused to give an exact date for the resumption of a drinkable water supply. Blue-green algae is an aquatic4 plant that occurs naturally in rivers, lakes, damp soil, tree trunks, hot springs and snow. "Bloom" is the common term used to describe an increase in the number of algal cells to a point where they discolor the water, form scum, produce unpleasant tastes and odors, affect shellfish and fish populations or otherwise create a nuisance and seriously reduce water quality. Experts blame three factors -- high temperatures, less rainfall and low water levels, and abnormally high concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen in the lake water -- for the outbreak of blue-green algae bloom in the Taihu Lake. Since last Tuesday, many residents of Wuxi, have turned on their taps to receive yellowish, stinking5 water. The pollution led to a panic buying of bottled water and bread. Local authorities are allocating6 more bottled water from neighboring cities of Suzhou, Changzhou, Nanjing and Shanghai. The city's pricing bureau has banned water price hikes. Vendors7 who deliberately8 drive up prices face fines of up to 300,000 yuan (39,200 U.S. dollars). The local meteorological observatory9 recorded an average temperature in the Taihu Lake region of 17.1 degrees Celsius10 in the first five months, 0.7 degrees higher than previous years and the highest since 1955. Rainmakers fired 39 rockets containing silver iodide from eight sites around Taihu Lake on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning, inducing a rainfall of more than 20 mm. Meanwhile, the city government of Wuxi, 128 km northwest of Shanghai, has opened a number of deep wells, which had been sealed off for fear of excessive extraction, for use during the emergency. Water authorities have also diverted the Yangtze River to dilute11 the lake water, according to the Taihu Valley Administration under the Ministry12 of Water Resources. China has seen string of water pollution accidents, with more than 140 cases since 2005 when drinking water to millions of people in the northeastern city of Harbin was stopped after a chemical spill contaminated the Songhua River. Among the top 10 environmental pollution cases listed by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) last year, seven were connected with water pollution, including four that directly led to unsafe drinking water.
点击  收听单词发音
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TAG标签：
- 发表评论
-
- 最新评论 进入详细评论页>>
