China sees success in battle against pollution on cross-border river

China has achieved its five-year goal of cleaning up the polluted Songhua River, which flows into the Sino-Russian border river, an environmental official said on Tuesday.

Out of 20 monitoring stations built on the river, 19 have recorded acceptable levels of water quality, based on Hong Yaxiong, president of the Chinese Academy For Environmental Planning. Hong produced the remarks on Tuesday while attending a meeting in Harbin, the capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

The 1,900-km-long Songhua River originates within the neighboring province of Jilin and flows into the Heilong River, known in Russia as the Amur River. This river runs along the Sino-Russian border.

In November 2005, about 100 metric tons of industrial waste spilled into the Songhua River after a chemical plant explosion in Jilin. The incident forced cities along the river, including Harbin, to temporarily cut water supplies to three.8 million men and women.

The government launched a five-year campaign in 2006 to clean up the river and eliminate the harmful pollution that resulted from the explosion.

Under the five-year cleanup plan, China spent 13.4 billion yuan (about 2 billion U.S. dollars) to create 222 pollution control projects, such as sewage treatment plants and water recycling facilities, along the river.

As a result of these efforts, the water high quality of the Songhua River has been substantially improved and its ecosystem has been restored, Hong stated.

Hong, who's in charge of preparing a second five-year program to continue cleaning up the river, said on Tuesday that the next strategy has already been mapped out and is at present under discussion.

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