Latest comments posted about Defending water security on ChinaDialogue en-gb http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/2847-Defending-water-security http://staging.chinadialogue.net/images/cdlogo.gif http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/2847-Defending-water-security I hope this northern Jiangsu incident should be positively dealt with by all parties involved, for the costs and negative effects of salvation afterwards are incalculable. Local governments should especially pay attention to the inspection in raising political achievement and introducing investment, in particular the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). For the local governments, one thing to bear in mind is that don’t welcome those high-polluting enterprises that are banished from the developed cities to invest in the less developed areas; and don’t let our innocent rural brothers live all day in breathing in high-polluted air and drinking high-polluted water. I thus sincerely wish all parties involved had a far-sight view to protect the pure land of the rural areas, and to give opportunity for the rural people to provide us with environmentally friendly and non-toxic food. -- Beautiful Homeland (Mei Li Jia Yuan) (Translated by Jieping Hu) Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:27:29 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2847#comment-9482 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2847#comment-9482 Drinking water is a long-standing problem. Whose responsibility should it be – that of the environmental protection department or that of the government? On one hand, local environmental law clearly states that local government is responsible for the quality of the environment, including the quality of the environment of the drinking water supply of course. However we are not clear the kind of responsibility the environmental protection department has over drinking water and what kinds of shortcomings they have in this respect, we are not clear about either. On the other hand, drinking water management is also related to the water resources, environmental protection, land and public health departments and the more departments involved, the greater the potential for mismanagement. The environmental protection department really has an impossible job. Now the environmental protection department holds the responsibility, but has no resources to carry this out with. I suggest that it should be the Central Division of the Department of Environmental Protection who is responsible for the quality of the drinking water. If there is an incident, the department head should be sacked or whoever holds the responsibility – (from land, water resources, public health departments), the head of that department will be sacked. This will make things a little better. Sacking the heads of some local environmental protection agencies is like swatting a few flies, who really cares? Mon, 30 Mar 2009 02:13:35 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2847#comment-8612 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2847#comment-8612 Water is more important than food -- everyone needs to drink water everyday. The poisoned milk powder incident brought great harm to tens of thousands of children and shocked the whole nation. At that time the subject of ‘Food Safety Law’ was raised. Nowadays, it seems that all we can expect is that cases of water pollution will be more exposed to the public by the media and everyone will suddenly realise how serious this issue is. Can only loss of life cause people to start paying attention? Tue, 24 Mar 2009 03:36:36 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2847#comment-8574 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2847#comment-8574 City residents can enjoy the clean water everyday because city water facilities are advanced and the government is quick to react to emergencies. However, in remote mountainous regions people have no idea about when their local water source or river is polluted. Over generations people have drunk the bad water and have naturally contracted a variety of strange diseases. (Translated by Tian Liang) Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:31:57 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2847#comment-8576 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2847#comment-8576 This notice points out that in China environmental accidents have been occurring constantly in recent years, and have posed a severe threat to the safety of public drinking water. In 2008 there were more than 135 environmental incidents handled directly by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, of which 46 threatened the public drinking water safety. (Translated by Tian Liang). Sun, 22 Mar 2009 21:06:22 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2847#comment-8563 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2847#comment-8563 This is all to do with the behaviour of the government, the common people are powerless. The author definitely has the right idea -- there are too many chemical industrial areas in Yancheng, which pollute not only our water sources and our blue sea, but also occupy a large amount of marshland along the coast. The number of people with cancer in Southern Jiangsu is high, it is one of the most prevalent places for cancer in the whole country. Southern Jiangsu is in a state of environmental emergency! This is a call for environmentalists to appeal to media nationally and internationally and ask them to participate in governmental supervision! Chinese local governments behave lawlessly! Sat, 21 Mar 2009 04:04:08 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2847#comment-8556 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2847#comment-8556 The media is always saying that there is water shortage in China. In fact, there is no shortage of water in China.However,we don't manage water resources well. Many high-quality water resources are exploited for commercial purposes. Moreover,we attach not enugh importance to tap water in cities. In addtion, there has been exsiting a problem of the asymmetric water information ,that is to say,our government claims water is in good condition,nevertheless,the non-governmental organization emphasizes water is in bad condition. So both sides need communications. Sat, 21 Mar 2009 08:01:27 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2847#comment-8558 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2847#comment-8558 On the 18th March Beijing Evening News reported that tourists can pay to go sighseeing at Beijing’s Huairou reservoir, which is usually closed off from the public. On 20th March Southern Metropolitan Daily reported that the main reservoir that provides drinking water to Guangdong, Shenzhen and also to the residents of Hong Kong, which was a popular sightseeing destination for a long time, now has dog kennels, waste transfer station, henhouses on its upper reaches. The issue of water safety is incredibly urgent. I hope that a water crisis like that in Yancheng won't happen again. Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:44:44 +0000 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2847#comment-8553 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/2847#comment-8553