AIR & WATER POLLUTION

MONITORING NEWSLETTER  

July 2012
No. 393

Necessary Government Push to Get China Water Quality in Order

Many potential polluters of China's rivers and lakes have not been meeting government requirements to monitor their water quality. Although China's government policy since 2005 states that all large polluters must have water quality monitoring stations, many companies have not been adhering to the policy. There seems very little reason that these companies should not been adhering to these policies due to the recent developments in technology that allow for automated water monitoring rather than necessary lab analysis. So why are companies disobeying the laws? Many companies fear the production of unfavorable data. Companies are currently required to submit data four times a day to environmental protection agencies but companies can easily adjust their waste emission time to avoid the possible 'bad' data. The penalties for breaking the rules are also not severe; the fines being far lower than the cost of sewage processing in the case of pollution. This seems ridiculous upon seeing that there have been 140 major water pollution cases since 2005. The solution is seen by the agencies working closely to share their data frequently: "Even if polluters do hide data, their emissions will influence the water quality in nearby rivers which are regularly monitored by the Water Resource Ministry. The ministry could forward pollution data to environmental protection agencies, which could soon discover which polluters are making emissions or falsifying data," says Qiu Tongyu, commercial manager for Hach. Hopefully for China's residents, the public demand for knowledge will pressure polluters to use these new automated monitoring devices and the environmental agencies will punish the wrongdoers.

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2008/August/26080802.asp

 

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