By Julie Dugdale
Rampant water pollution isn’t breaking news in China. It’s a way of life.
The images are no longer shocking: children swimming in garbage-choked lakes; waterways congested by bloated, poisoned fish rotting at the surface; industrial pipes openly spewing torrents of chemical waste into rivers and reservoirs.
China’s Pollution Status Quo
The numbers paint as bleak a picture as the imagery. More than 42 percent of China’s rivers and 75 percent of its lakes and reservoirs are too severely polluted for human consumption and fishing, says International Rivers.
Perhaps more important, the increasing toxicity in water that serves as a drinking, cooking, washing, and bathing source coincides with an uptick in debilitating public health problems, such as the rise of the Chinese “cancer village.” More than 450 such epicenters of unexplained disease have cropped up around contaminated waterways.
The culprits are many: Power plants, chemical plants, dye factories, paper mills, metal smelters, and more have largely gone unregulated during China’s breakneck rate of industrialization.
It’s not uncommon for mega companies to pay off the poorest villages in exchange for waste dumping in their waterways.
Plus, more than 87,000 hydroelectric dams—meant to ease the country’s unrelenting dependence on coal energy to fuel its manufacturing surge—have wreaked havoc on the riparian ecosystems and forced people off their land.
Global Greengrants Gets Involved
Here’s how two Global Greengrants Fund grantees are fighting for transparency and accountability when it comes to China’s poisoned waterways.
Green Anhui: A Leader is Born
Citizens formed Green Anhui to lobby for industry transparency in the face of high cancer rates in Anhui Province, which is polluted largely by glass and chemical plants.
Global Greengrants was one of its first funders in 2005. Since then, Green Anhui has burgeoned into one of the country’s foremost grassroots leaders. It’s track record includes:
- Setting up nine volunteer stations along the Huai River for monthly pollution monitoring.
- Forming citizen groups to pursue environmental litigation, resulting in 15 successful lawsuits (many regarding fishermen’s rights and health issues).
- Creating a hazardous waste network to help industries more efficiently and effectively dispose of waste.
- Exerting influence on the government to enforce standards more stringently.
Today, Green Anhui is a model for other environmental initiatives across the country.
Green Qilu: Gaining Momentum
Launched in 2012, Green Qilu works in the Shandong Province to increase awareness of and engagement in the water pollution crisis, targeting both the public and the offending industries.
With Global Greengrants’ help, citizens have developed a Pollution Information Transparency Index, which scores the industries in Shandong’s cities on their pollution monitoring. The group deploys volunteers to dumping spots to test the pollutant levels, log the results in a public online database, and post permanent signs displaying legal contaminant levels.
Green Qilu’s approach is a diplomatic one that’s built strong relationships with stakeholders.
Grassroots efforts such as community river walks, school trips, and family outreach are ongoing and critical to Green Qilu’s mission, and have already rendered Shandong the leading province for pollution monitoring.
In early 2016, a new law in China that blocks incoming funding from foreign NGOs may jeopardize international organizations’ continued support of Chinese environmental action. This means stronger domestic involvement in environmental initiatives is crucial. Civil groups must work toward establishing a self-sufficient system and find ways to tap into in-country resources for organizational support.
One thing is for certain: Saving the China’s most precious natural resource is non-negotiable.