Former Chinese leader Mao Zedong, famously swam the Yangtze river in 1966 at the age of 64 to demonstrate his vitality and willingness to struggle. He would hardly dare to swim it, if he were alive today, such is the extent of pollution. The 6,379 km Yangtze supports one in every 15 people on earth. It begins with some of the world's purest water on the Tibetan plateau, but is so affected by cities, factories, fish-farms and farmland that the World Wildlife Fund says the Yangtze delta is the biggest cause of marine pollution in the Pacific.

Shanghai, with a population of close to 20 million people, produces 5.3 million litres of waste a day, more than a third of which is dumped in rivers untreated. Its drinking water comes from the Huangpu river but it has become so dirty and expensive to treat that Shanghai will soon start taking half its supplies from the Yangtze, putting even more pressure on the mighty river.

Related News: Henan Province: villagers blame foul river for cancer, Source, 21 Oct 2004

Source: Jonathan Watts, The Guardian, 11 Nov 2004

Tags: water quality