A Chinese folk song poetically says of the Yangtze: 'A river's spring water flows east [Yi jiang chun shui, xiang dong liu].' Now, reflecting changing times, a more popular version warns: 'A river's poisoned water flows east [Yi jiang du shui, xiang dong liu].'
The Yangtze River, China's great dragon, is polluted, with 90 per cent of the industrial enterprises along its banks releasing pollutants into it. Of all human waste water dumped into the Yangtze, 30 per cent is not even treated. And it all flows east.
While environmental protection has become a slogan of the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference annual meetings, their promises have realised little concrete action. The State Council last year promised to reduce energy consumption by 4 per cent and the discharge of pollutants by 2 per cent per annum during the 11th five-year plan (2006-10). One year on, these goals have not yet been met. This means China will need to play catch-up; a lousy start to what observers feel is a hopeless cause, given the country's gargantuan industrial needs and growing desire for luxury goods.
Even though the plan calls for a reduction in pollution discharge, it also envisions massive industrial programmes for eight cities along the Yangtze, under which pollutants would be pumped into the river. Ironically, the plan outlines three reasons for this strategic decision: the convenience of transporting energy upstream, finished goods downstream - and dumping waste in the river. So, for convenience's sake, it is clear that the 11th Five-Year Programme has not been well planned, at least for people's long-term future.
Such environmental damage also may cause the extinction of a nationally protected species, the white dolphin, that once inhabited the Yangtze delta but no longer exists in the area. In the 1990s, 150 dolphins lived in this region. Last December, a six-nation group of scientists spent 38 days in a 1,750km search. No white dolphins were seen.
China's material needs and waste of natural resources exceed what its environment can support. The statistics are shocking: 90 per cent of the nation's rivers are heavily polluted; 75 per cent of its lakes are toxic; one-third of all Chinese live and breathe heavily polluted air; and one-third of the land is under an acid rain belt.