Water supplies to 200,000 residents in eastern China have been halted after ammonia and azote leaked from a chemical plant into a river, the latest in a string of pollution incidents amid an industrial boom. State media reported on Wednesday that residents of Shuyang County in the heavily industrialised province of Jiangsu had been provided with water from 33 unpolluted wells after the spill.

Bad air and water have become a constant concern for many Chinese as the country seeks to race into economic prosperity, often with little regard for the environment. A pollution-fed algae outbreak last month in Taihu Lake, also in Jiangsu, cut off tap water to Wuxi city for days.

But as illness, deaths and discontent from pollution have risen, the central government has sought to rein in dangerous emissions and tame enthusiasm for breakneck growth. "For the sake of their own political scorecards, some local officials have been joining forces with businesses that are seeking windfall profits," deputy chief of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), Pan Yue, said on Wednesday.

Pan told the China Youth Daily that in 2006, 26 percent of the length of the country's seven main river systems had pollution of grade 5 or worse, making it unfit for human contact. Seven of 9 major lakes monitored had equally bad pollution. "This series of dark statistics shows that traditional industrial growth has already pushed China's resources and environment to nearly intolerable limits," he said.

About 460,000 Chinese die prematurely each year from breathing polluted air and drinking dirty water, according to a World Bank study. The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that the Chinese government, the bank's partner in the research project, had asked the lender not to publish the estimates for fear they could intensify public discontent.

Six cities, two counties and five industrial parks were named and shamed by SEPA this week for their role in polluting four major rivers, including China's longest two, the Yangtze and the Yellow River. SEPA would not approve any projects proposed by the accused polluters for three months other than treatment plants and "recycling" facilities, the agency said in a statement on its Web site sepa.
(Planet Ark, 05/07/2007)