{"id":15264,"date":"2023-11-03T04:10:10","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T03:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aboutriver.com\/?p=15264"},"modified":"2023-11-03T04:10:10","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T03:10:10","slug":"how-long-did-the-yangtze-river-get-cleaned-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aboutriver.com\/how-long-did-the-yangtze-river-get-cleaned-up\/","title":{"rendered":"How Long Did The Yangtze River Get Cleaned Up"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Yangtze River Pollution Crisis<\/h2>\n

The Yangtze River, located in the heart of China, is the world’s third longest river and one of the main veins of the country’s economic development. Pollution from overfishing, agricultural runoff, and industrial waste has taken a catastrophic toll on this essential waterway, leading to high levels of heavy metal toxins, high algae levels, and other pollutants.<\/p>\n

In 2009, the Ministry of Environmental Protection launched a pollution reduction program for the Yangtze with the goal of cleaning up the water by 2020. With the backing of the Chinese government, national and provincial partnerships have developed to help address the issue. Environmental monitoring stations have been built along the river, and pollution limits have been put into place. A campaign to inform and educate citizens of the dangers of pollution, as well as a mandatory closure of polluting enterprises, are just some of the efforts undertaken to try to reduce the environmental contamination.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, despite all of the initiatives, the Yangtze River still faces serious water pollution problems. The 2016 Environmental Report by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection found that the water quality of the river remains poor and that the situation has only slightly improved over the past decade. As a result of the government’s efforts, the number of heavily polluted sections in the river has dropped from 106 in 2000 to just 39 in 2015. However, this progress is far from sufficient. <\/p>\n

Experts believe that there is still much work to be done in order to truly clean up the Yangtze. Not only is agricultural run-off a major contributor to the river’s pollution, but so is industrial waste. The volume of industrial wastewater discharged into the river has increased exponentially since the turn of the millennium, thus exacerbating the water quality in certain areas.<\/p>\n