Difficulties to make tap water safe to drink
September 27, 2012 Category Environment, Pollution
China’s tap water is still not safe to drink despite the adoption of stricter standards concerning drinking water quality, according to Tsinghua University Professor Wang Zhansheng. Tap water which is tested as qualified in the plants might be polluted during the delivery process, and no authorities have been appointed to supervise the implementation of the new standards to ensure their complete adoption, he added. “Many pollutants can’t be removed under the current treatment,” Wang said. The government plans to invest CNY410 billion before the end of 2015 to upgrade and construct urban water-providing facilities and meet the new standards. Aging water pipes and inadequate management of storage facilities in urban communities are also causing further pollution. Chinese experts are alarmed at the poor quality of tap water in major cities, saying a lack of government action and inadequate public attention has made widespread contamination problems even worse. Their warnings shed light on a rarely talked about issue. Even if a new guideline is adhered to at water treatment plants, they say it will still be difficult to ensure that tap water piped into homes is safe to drink because of contamination from chemicals used in the pipes connecting treatment plants and homes, and from toxic organic compounds that are soluble and difficult to remove. A survey of more than 4,400 water treatment plants three years ago found that 58% of tap water met national standards after processing, according to the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development. But the Ministry and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said the rate rose to 83% last year. Dou Yisong, Water Standards Expert at the Beijing University of Technology, warned that water pollution in the capital had yet to be brought under control despite a costly clean-up effort led by the government.
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