AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF ECOTOXICOLOGY
V . 13, pp. 1-2, 2007 Vol
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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN CHINA: THE GREAT LEAP BACKWARD? Jenny Stauber Centre for Environmental Contaminants Research, CSIRO Land and Water, PMB 7, Bangor NSW 2234 Australia (currently at City University, Hong Kong).
My recent move to Hong Kong has opened my eyes to the huge environmental challenges currently faced by rapidly developing economies in the Asia Pacific region. Dwindling water resources, due to both climate change and pollution, is a global issue of increasing concern, particularly in China. Rapid economic growth and industrial development in China have been accompanied by major disturbances to both coastal and riverine environments. Fish kills from agricultural runoff and uncontrolled industrial and sewage discharges are a regular occurrence, with flow-on effects on local industries (e.g. aquaculture) and communities, who depend on rivers as a source of drinking water. The World Bank has estimated that the total costs of water and air pollution in China comprise 5.8% of the GDP. About half a million mainland residents die prematurely every year from breathing polluted air and drinking contaminated water, and that’s just the human cost. Not a day goes past here in Hong Kong without reports in our local English newspaper (The South China Morning Post) of the latest disasters on the mainland. China’s coal mines are the worst in the world, with 4746 miners killed last year alone in 2845 accidents. And that’s just the official figures! Just recently, 172 miners died when floodwaters breached a levy and flooded a coal mine in Xintai with 10 million cubic metres of water. Even with 10 pumps going at full capacity, it is estimated that it will take 100 days to drain the mine and that the bodies will never be recovered. Besides occupational health and safety issues, environmental disasters are also commonplace. In 2005, 100 tonnes of benzene compounds spilled into the Songhua River after a chemical plant explosion in Jilin city, temporarily cutting off water to 3.8 million people in Harbin. Similarly, release of 2500 tonnes of dye-affected wastewater from a heating system station in Lanzhou in November, 2006 turned the Yellow River completely red. The long term environmental consequences of these spillages are even far more reaching. In China now over 70% of the nation’s waterways are contaminated. Water in the Pearl River is no longer suitable even for industrial use, while 70% of the water in the Yellow, Huai and Hai Rivers is considered to be too polluted for human use. The once mighty Yangtse River receives more than 40% of the country’s total waste water, 80% of which is untreated and the pollution belt along the river now exceeds 600 km. The consequences include the extinction of the Yangtse River white dolphin or baiji, which once lived along a 1669 km stretch of the middle and lower Yangtse. From as many as 6000 dolphins in the 1950s, only 13 were living by 1998 and there have been no sightings since 2002. Their * Author for correspondence, email:
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demise has been blamed on overfishing, increased shipping movements, removal of food sources, pollution, dredging and fragmentation of populations due to the large Three Gorges Dam project. The estuaries of the Yangtse and Pearl Rivers have been declared marine “dead zones” by the United Nations i.e. an area where oxygen is depleted by algal blooms triggered by nutrients from fertilisers, sewage etc. The statistics are frightening. A report by the Chinese State Environmental Protection Agency stated that 32 billion tonnes of land-based contaminants flowed into China’s seas last year, triggering 82 red tides, stretching to waters to the far east of Hong Kong near my home in the aptly named Clear Water Bay. The Bohai Sea near Tianjin will become “dead” in 10 years and already only 10% of marine species are surviving due to inputs of 5.7 billion tonnes of sewage and 2 billion tonnes of solid waste every year. Recent economic losses due to restrictions on imports of contaminated seafood into Hong Kong and the USA from China, have highlighted the need for better control of pollutants in waters around Chinese aquaculture farms and in the fishing areas of the South China Sea. For example, imports from China of catfish containing the antibiotic fluoroquinolone have recently been banned in the US. In 2006, antibiotics such as malachite green, nitrofuran residues and other carcinogenic substances were detected in turbot, a variety of flatfish, in the Pearl River delta, resulting in a complete ban on their export. With the 2008 Olympics in Beijing just around the corner, the Chinese Government has introduced its 11th 5-year plan, setting ambitious environmental targets to combat water and air pollution. However, although the Central government in Beijing sets the agenda, implementation is difficult at the local level, with local officials often more concerned about promoting further economic growth. Even in a cosmopolitan city such as Hong Kong, our air quality standards and regulatory environment lag behind the rest of the world. Hong Kong air quality objectives were set in 1987 and have not yet been revised to bring them in line with the more recent WHO 1997 guidelines. Hong Kong guidelines are 40 times higher than WHO for sulphur dioxide and about seven times higher for suspended respirable particulates. Even with such high guidelines, there were 57 days last year in which the Hong Kong air pollution index exceeded 100, with well documented effects on human health. China’s environmental problems also affect the rest of the world. China has surpassed the US as the leading emitter of carbon dioxide and according to the International Energy 1
AUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL OF ECOTOXICOLOGY
V . 13, pp. 1-2, 2007 Vol
Stauber
Agency, in 25 years it will emit twice as much carbon dioxide as all the countries in the OECD combined. Coal fired power stations, which provide 70% of China’s energy needs, are the biggest source of air-born pollutants and as China’s coal consumption is expected to double between 2000 and 2008, this will remain a major problem. So what can we as, ecotoxicologists, do about these problems? Awareness is the first step. We can also be more proactive as a society by sponsoring exchanges and workshops through international agencies to help technology transfer and capacity building in China. I have recently obtained funding from AusAID to further develop local skills in ecotoxicology in China to enable assessment of the risk of chemical contaminants in aquatic systems, hopefully leading ultimately to improved remediation strategies. Technology transfer of tools/methods to assess exposure, bioavailability
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and effects of contaminants on aquatic biota, will be undertaken in order to help local institutes develop similar tools with appropriate local species. The CSIRO Centre for Environmental Contaminants Research, in collaboration with the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the State Environmental Protection Agency will facilitate a workshop for local government agencies to build capacity in environmental assessment. In particular, toxicity test development with local species will enable more appropriate development of water and sediment quality guidelines for environmental protection. This project, together with others including CSIRO’s Metals in Asia initiative, are but small steps, but are urgently required to assist China’s future sustainable development. I encourage you all to seek ways of contributing to such projects in the Asia Pacific region in future.
