China Wants Sungari Water to Be Clean Enough to Drink

BEIJING. March 15 (Interfax) – The Chinese authorities want to reduce the pollution of the Sungari River, the largest Amur tributary, by 2010 so that the river’s water is clean enough to drink without treatment, deputy head of the State Environmental Protection Administration Zhang Lijun told Russian journalists in Beijing on Thursday.

He said about $2 billion had been assigned for the project.

“It is planned to ensure the rational use of boundary river resources, develop international cooperation in ecological monitoring, exchange information, and pay compensation for poisonous discharges,” he said.

The official praised cooperation with Russian environmental agencies in the cleanup of the Sungari benzene spill in late 2005, when the pollutant reached Khabarovsk.

Environmental monitoring of the Sungari River in 2006 did not find any instance where harmful substances exceeded the maximum permissible concentration, Zhang said.

Asked what was done to the Jiling petrochemical company, which leaked benzene into the Sungari following an explosion that killed eight people, Zhang said that the company paid fines totaling $4 million.

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