By the beginning of the previous century, the lower Ko river had become completely anoxic due
to discharges of untreated sewage from Ko Ming, a problem which persisted throughout the
development of the city as attempts to improve waste water treatment failed to keep up with
the expanding population. The upper Ko became increasingly polluted with domestic effluent
from the towns of the Kuo and safe drinking water became a serious public-health issue until
the Third Five-Year Plan and the construction of reservoirs in the surrounding uplands and a
network of aqueducts and water treatment plants.
However, the catchment areas for these reservoirs were heavily contaminated: in the south,
by groundwater seepage from the coal mines; and in the North by airborne pollution
originating in the copper and nickel smelting industry. Information on public-health issues
arising from heavy metals and phenolic residues in the drinking water supply was suppressed
by the authorities.
Airborne pollution, including particulate smogs originating from coal power generation and
the blast furnaces of the region's steel plants, was a visible sign of the region's
environmental degradation throughout the latter half of the century, with life-expectancy
dropping to 55 for adult males due to the prevalence of pulmonary diseases.
However, the major environmental problem was, and remains, the extensive contamination of the
region's groundwater, originally by mercury and other heavy-metal salts discharged by
foundries and electroplating plants and, later, by phenolic residues from the plastics
industry. Public discussion of the health problems arising from these practices was
suppressed, and the situation was largely accepted by the local population; however,
agricultural production ceased on the margins of the upper Ko following repeated crop
failures and outbreaks of mass poisoning.
The abandonment of farming villages affected by mercury contamination was facilitated by an
expansion of industrial land usage by the new factories producing consumer goods; the
resulting mass evictions obviated the need for large-scale evacuations on environmental
grounds, with the potential for social unrest being largely defused by the absorption of the
displaced population into manufacturing employment and a general rise in living standards.
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Date: 2007-12-05 10:35 am (UTC)By the beginning of the previous century, the lower Ko river had become completely anoxic due to discharges of untreated sewage from Ko Ming, a problem which persisted throughout the development of the city as attempts to improve waste water treatment failed to keep up with the expanding population. The upper Ko became increasingly polluted with domestic effluent from the towns of the Kuo and safe drinking water became a serious public-health issue until the Third Five-Year Plan and the construction of reservoirs in the surrounding uplands and a network of aqueducts and water treatment plants.
However, the catchment areas for these reservoirs were heavily contaminated: in the south, by groundwater seepage from the coal mines; and in the North by airborne pollution originating in the copper and nickel smelting industry. Information on public-health issues arising from heavy metals and phenolic residues in the drinking water supply was suppressed by the authorities.
Airborne pollution, including particulate smogs originating from coal power generation and the blast furnaces of the region's steel plants, was a visible sign of the region's environmental degradation throughout the latter half of the century, with life-expectancy dropping to 55 for adult males due to the prevalence of pulmonary diseases.
However, the major environmental problem was, and remains, the extensive contamination of the region's groundwater, originally by mercury and other heavy-metal salts discharged by foundries and electroplating plants and, later, by phenolic residues from the plastics industry. Public discussion of the health problems arising from these practices was suppressed, and the situation was largely accepted by the local population; however, agricultural production ceased on the margins of the upper Ko following repeated crop failures and outbreaks of mass poisoning.
The abandonment of farming villages affected by mercury contamination was facilitated by an expansion of industrial land usage by the new factories producing consumer goods; the resulting mass evictions obviated the need for large-scale evacuations on environmental grounds, with the potential for social unrest being largely defused by the absorption of the displaced population into manufacturing employment and a general rise in living standards.