Environmental authorities in China will be given data from discharge points in the Yangtze River basin, with an online monitoring platform, which has as a goal to enhance pollution controls.
This development is part of Yangtze River Water Resources Commission and Taihu Lake Basin Authority on-site inspections last year at more than 8,800 locations, which generated 6,092 major sewage points with a daily discharge of 300 metric tons or an annual discharge of 100,000 tons.
Namely, sewage points which do not incorporate the required monitoring equipment, will be upgraded. Specifically, an online platform will share the information collected with environmental protection departments in each region.
In the same time, water quality data from the Yangtze River basin showed improvements in recent years. In 2016, more than half of all sections monitored were Grade I or II, which are the top categories in the national standard for surface water. Furthermore, the section that did not present similar improvement, reduced from 9.7 to 4.9%, despite an increase in sewage discharge in that time.
Jin Xingping, Yangtze River Water Resources Commission’s chief engineer stated that he is not worried about the increase of sewage discharge, as this is something that can be avoided, with the evolution of economy. Furthermore, the Commission will conduct strict controls on hazardous substances in the sewage, in order to keep them at a safe level.