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OECD paints bleak picture of pollution in China
(The report) says that as many as 300 million people are drinking contaminated water every day, and 190 million are suffering from water-related illnesses each year ... One third of the length of all China's rivers are now "highly polluted" as are 75% of its major lakes and 25% of all its coastal waters. Nearly 30,000 children die from diarrhoea due to polluted water each year. "A majority of the water flowing through China's urban areas is unsuitable for drinking or fishing," the report says. Although China is the world's fourth largest economy, growing 10% a year and closing rapidly on the US, Japan and Germany, its environmental standards are often closer to those in some of the poorest countries in the world, says the report. More than 17,000 towns have no sewage works at all and the human waste from nearly a billion people is barely collected or treated. Nearly 70% of the rural population have no access to safe sanitation... Posted by: lotp 2007-07-18 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=193784 |