Water Pollution Emergencies In China
For me, there are few issues more important than water in China. It is a resource that is becoming scarce in the North, and for many, its contamination is an issue that threatens economic security and health.
to that end, I want to highlight the recently released World Bank report Water Pollution Emergencies In China, prevention and response (PDF Download here):
The purpose of this paper is to provide policy recommendations to assist the Government of China in improving environmental emergency prevention and response in the high risk industrial sector.
With each disaster ( Wuxi algae blooms, Qingdao blooms, Haierbin spills, and dozens of others), the pressure mounts on the central party to address the downside of hyperdevelopment… and to clean up.
to assist them in this, the WB report makes the following recomendations:
1) To Improve the Legislative and Regulatory Framework.
2) Improve Organizational Arrangements and Strengthen Coordination
3) To Establish Mechanisms for Incentives and Liabilities.
4) To Provide Funds through Proper Channels.
5) Strengthen Risk Assessment, Management and Planning.
6) To Improve Chemical Information Management.
7) To Build the Capacity of First Response.
To Strengthen Monitoring, Timely Reporting and Disclosure of Emergency Situations.
9) To Cleanup Pollutants Rapidly and Mitigate Impacts.
10) To Undertake Incident Investigation and Draw and Share Experiences/Lessons
Where I think these recommendations fall short, and recommendations I would make are:
1) Develop relationships and clear channels with environmental NGOs who would identify polluters and document damage in a non-confrontational manner
2) Promote environmental education and awareness programs within the educational system, and invest in ongoing public campaigns that heighten public awareness of the issues and how they themselves can improve conditions.
3) Begin tying the issues of water pollution to health through food quality, water quality, etc and through this foster consumer pressure on companies to improve their standards.
4) Get them early before they develop bad habits
Consistent law enforcement would help as well. Also, there is a growing purchase of pollution control equipment however factory bosses simply bypass the system once the installation ceremony is over because of the energy and maintenance costs.