| A report on China's Yangtze River, the longest in | | | | countries, which is first pollute it, then clean up," said Li. |
| China, says human activity has caused irreversible | | | | Li commends Hunan province for shutting down more |
| damage and severe pollution to the river and its | | | | than 100 small but highly polluting paper mills along the |
| tributaries, threatening water supplies to millions. The | | | | river earlier this year. But he says much tighter pollution |
| report says the water quality is getting worse and | | | | control is needed to make any real difference. |
| more needs to done to protect China's "mother river." | | | | The report says more than 600 kilometers of the |
| Daniel Schearf reports from Beijing. | | | | Yangtze, about 10 percent, are in "critical condition" and |
| The report by the Chinese Academy of Social | | | | 30 percent of its major tributaries are seriously polluted. |
| Sciences, the Yangtze River Water Resources | | | | As a result, the freshwater white-flag dolphin, which |
| Commission and the World Wildlife Fund says billions | | | | once swam in the Yangtze, may be close to |
| of tons of wastewater and sewage from factories | | | | extinction, as scientists have not been able to find any |
| and homes are dumped into the river every year. | | | | trace of them. And the annual harvest of fish and |
| The pollution and damming on the river to generate | | | | other river products has plunged to about 100,000 tons |
| electricity have killed off aquatic life, prevented fish | | | | now, from 427,000 tons in the 1950s. |
| migration, and driven a rare species of freshwater | | | | Xinhua news agency said Wednesday more than |
| dolphin to the brink of extinction. | | | | 100,000 farm-raised Chinese sturgeon would be |
| The official Xinhua news agency says the damage on | | | | released into the Yangtze on Sunday to try to make |
| the Yangtze water ecology is now "largely | | | | up for the loss. |
| irreversible." | | | | The Yangtze, called Changjiang, or "Long River" in |
| Li Lifeng is the head of the China freshwater program | | | | Chinese, accounts for 35 percent of the country's |
| at the World Wildlife Fund and an editor of the report. | | | | fresh water supply and runs from China's western |
| He says 20 billion tons of wastewater is dumped into | | | | Tibetan Plateau to the East China Sea, passing |
| the Yangtze annually and that the country must stop | | | | through several major cities along the way. |
| over-exploiting the river for economic gain. | | | | The river's problems are symptomatic of China's |
| "We need to balance the conservation and | | | | water woes. The government has acknowledged that |
| development and ensure we will not repeat the | | | | most waterways are severely polluted and overused, |
| industrialization path that's happening in the western | | | | and many communities suffer water shortages. |