Qing River Management Department director Fu Pingyin says he's getting more tired by the day as next year's Beijing Olympics draw closer.
Standing beside a riverbank lined with trees and flowers, Mr Fu says his orders are to make sure that the 23.7km of the waterway under his jurisdiction in northern Beijing, near the city's Olympic Park, is 'crystal clear' when the Games open in August 2008.
His job is part of a campaign to ensure the city has water that is safe to drink, pleasant to look at and deep enough for canoeing. It's a campaign on an unprecedented scale, supported by a generous budget.
For most mainland cities, industrial pollution, inadequate water processing facilities and insufficient cleanup funds are common concerns. But this is not the case in Beijing today. According to Zhang Yanyou , a member of the Beijing Development and Reform Commission, industrial plants tainting the municipality's rivers have been disappearing with a speed no other mainland city can match.
Most of the city's steel, chemical, metal, coking, cement and small power plants had been either relocated or shut down in recent years, Mr Zhang said. 'We are fighting a decisive battle this year to eliminate the remnants,' he said.
The deputy director of the Beijing Water Authority, Bi Xiaogang, said industrial contamination accounted for less than 10 per cent of the water pollution in Beijing, and most of the pollutants in rivers nowadays were generated by residents.
