WAPORICH

Water Quality and Pollution Dynamics in Rivers of the Dry North and Wet South of China

The economical development of China partly profits from the vast environmental resources of the country, such as water, air and soil. The growing environmental scientific community in China is eager to gain knowledge of the biogeochemical processes and consequences of the pollution, and to advise the government for improvement of the situation. An exchange of knowledge and practical collaboration between Eawag and the renowned Research Center for Eco-Environmental Science and Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (RCEES-CAS) in Beijing with its applied focus on water issues, offers mutual profit in combining research and problem solving efforts to help build up and strengthen the ties of the environmental scientific community.

Anthropogenic contamination of surface waters in China is on the increase. Many river and lake ecosystems cannot perform their ecological functions anymore either due to water shortages, alteration of water flows by damming, increasing erosion, effluents of untreated household sewage, or simply industrial discharge of problematic chemicals to the aquatic lifecycle. Apart from the river biocoenosis this affects the number and quality of fish and deteriorates groundwater and drinking water.

Our research project is directed to investigate the temporal and spatial distribution of immissions of nutrients, trace metals, and persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in two complementary rivers. Haihe and Yangtze are two large river systems representative for the drought prone north of China with its spread of deserts, large population and water consuming industries, and the water-rich central-south part. RCEES has carried out related research on the drainage areas of the Haihe and obtained a long sequence of basic hydrography and water quality data. The research team from Eawag has recently published their work on water quality of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. On this ground, thorough knowledge of the river systems and experience of local conditions for the present research proposal is available.

Collaborators

Huijuan Liu, Qiuwen Chen, and Baoqing Shan, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Science and Technology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (RCEES-CAS), Beijing

Literature

Müller B., M. Berg, Z.P. Yao, X.F. Zhang, D. Wang, and A. Pfluger: How polluted is the Yangtze River? Water quality downstream from the Three Gorges Dam. Sci. Tot. Environ. 2008, 402, 231-246. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2008.04.049 [pdf, 1.12MB]

Fu B.J., Zhuang X.L., Jiang G.B., Shi J.B., lv Y.H. Environmental Problems and Challenges in China. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2007, 41, 7597-7692.

SEPA, Report on the state of the environment in China, 2006a.

Wang M., Webber M., Finlayson B. Barnett J. Rural industries and water pollution in China. Journal of Environmental Management, 2008, 86, 648–659.

Wong C.M., Williams C.E., Pittock J., Collier U., Schelle P. World’s top 10 rivers at risk. WWF International, Gland, Switzerland, 2007. (pdf, 1.76MB)