Oct 28, News from China Environment Net, a non-governmental network organization, a 10-year work plan on China’s underground water pollution control (2011-2020) has been officially approved by the State Council on the 10th day of this month. At the joint press conference on the afternoon of 28, October, 2011, Beijing, three Chinese departments, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Ministry of Water Resources and Ministry of Land and Resources, told the media that "the work plan is regarded as the first framework document for China’s underground water environmental management".
According to the national GB/T14848-93 (Quality Standard for Underground Water), 37% of the nation’s underground water resources fall into the category of Class IV to Class V in the water quality index system, which suggests more than one third of the underground water in China is not appropriate to drink. In the three decades of rapid economic growth, urban waste water, township household garbage, industrial waste and the chemical pesticide leakage in particular have caused severe pollutions to water environment and are worsening the country’s already vulnerable underground water system.
In order to effectively prevent and control underground water pollution, several national departments led by China MEP spend six years compiling the 2011-2020 work plan. It proposes in explicit eight objectives of underground water pollution control, such as underground water pollution investigation, safety guarantee for underground drinking water source, urban pollution control that affects underground water, prevention and control of key industrial underground water pollution, assortment control of farmland underground water pollution and pilot underground water remediation, etc.
Also the work plan is putting on agenda three short-term tasks: 1) proposing a top design scheme for 4 investigations1 and 4 types of assessment2 among 6 major pollution sources3 and 6 typical geographic regions4; 2) formulating a set of technical regulations for the assessment; 3) selecting 4 provinces, namely Beijing, Shandong, Hainan and Guizhou, to implement pilot underground water assessment.
The work plan will speed up the establishment of a coordinated system to control and prevent pollution in surface water and underground water of China and will hopefully lay a sound foundation for the overall water quality improvement in China.
Note 1: Investigations on the basic parameters, management conditions, water quality conditions and risk source conditions of underground water.
Note 2: Comprehensive assessment on underground water pollution, pollution-resistance assessment of underground water, risk assessment of underground water and remediation proposal assessment.
Note 3: Hazardous waste stockpiling field, refuse landfill sites, mining areas, petrochemical production and distribution areas, renewable water irrigated areas and chemical industrial zones.
Note 4: Cities where surface water is severely damaged, areas where drinking water sources are severely damaged, typical metropolitan areas, large-scale irrigated areas, massive cultivation areas and Karstic regions.
