. Earth Science News .
Algae Choking Another Major Chinese Lake

A large amount of algae has bloomed in Dianchi Lake, turning the water as green as paint in a stretch along the shore near Kunming city, in China's southwest Yunnan province 25 June 2007. A massive algae bloom has spread out over another of China's big lakes, despite hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on years of clean up efforts. Photo courtesy AFP.
by Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) June 25, 2007
A massive algae bloom has spread out over another of China's big lakes, a press report said Monday, despite hundreds of millions of dollars being spent on years of clean up efforts. "In recent days, due to the hot and humid weather, a large amount of algae has bloomed in Dianchi Lake, turning the water as green as paint in a stretch along the shore near Kunming city," the Oriental Daily reported.

"Wave after wave of rolling green lake water laps up on the shore giving off an awful stench."

Dianchi, in southwest China's Yunnan province, is the country's sixth largest freshwater lake. It has suffered from severe pollution since the early 1990s and is plagued by algae blooms each summer, the paper said.

The bloom comes after algae choked Taihu and Chaohu lakes, China's third and fifth largest freshwater lakes respectively, in late May and early June, underscoring the state of China's degraded water system.

More than 70 percent of China's waterways and 90 percent of its underground water are contaminated by pollution, according to the State Environmental Protection Administration.

The Taihu scare affected tap water for millions of nearby residents although the poor state of Dianchi means people do not rely on it for drinking supplies.

The algae bloom at Dianchi comes despite about 464 million dollars having been spent to clean it up from the early 1990s to 2003, according to a 2006 report from the government's China Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.

About 175 million dollars of these funds were from World Bank loans, it said.

A report by the US embassy in China said that more than two billion dollars had been spent on cleaning up the lake.

Source: Agence France-Presse

Email This Article

Related Links
State Environmental Protection Administration
Water News - Science, Technology and Politics



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


Chilean Officials Stunned By Missing Lake
Santiago (AFP) June 21, 2007
Officials are trying to solve the mysterious disappearance of a large lake in southern Chile after recently discovering a 30-meter (98-foot) deep crater instead of the body of water. The National Forests Corp. of Chile (CONAF) has asked geologists to investigate what may have caused the unnamed lake to dry up after CONAF officials were stunned to find the empty hole during a routine visit on May 27.







  • US Charitable Giving Sets New Record Topping Katrina Effort
  • New Orleans Still At Risk Of Serious Flooding
  • Water Spray Latest Headache For Indonesian Mudflow Engineers
  • Building House Forms And Shapes For Better Hurricane Endurance

  • Dutch Data Shows China Surpassed The US In 2006 Carbon-Dioxide Emissions
  • Climate Models Consistent With Ocean Warming Observations
  • UN Secretary General Points To Climate Change As Partly Behind Darfur Disaster
  • World Desertification Day Puts Spotlight On Neglected Crisis

  • QuikSCAT Marks Eight Years On-Orbit Watching Planet Earth
  • Ukraine To Launch Earth Observation Satellite In 2008
  • NASA Satellites Watch as China Constructs Giant Dam
  • Kalam Calls For Development Of Satellite Systems For Entire Humanity

  • New Russian Tanker Company To Develop Arctic
  • Putin Pushes For Long-Term Energy Contracts For Black Sea States
  • Chinese City Turns Off The Air-Con Until Temperature Reaches 33 Celsius
  • Scientists Call For Global Push To Advance Research In Synthetic Biology

  • Three Cases Of H5N1 Bird Flu Confirmed In Germany
  • Ancient Retrovirus Sheds Light On Modern Pandemic
  • Bird Flu Fears Reignited
  • Bono And Geldof blast G8 AIDS Pledge Farce

  • Explorers To Use Robotic Vehicles To Hunt for Life And Vents On Arctic Seafloor
  • Book Makes Case For Using Evolution In Everyday Life
  • Ancient DNA Traces The Woolly Mammoth Disappearance
  • CT Scan Reveals Ancient Long-Necked Gliding Reptile

  • Jobs Trump Environment As Armenia Opens Giant Copper Mine
  • Indonesian Activists Report Snoozing Newmont Judges
  • EPA Wants Tighter US Smog Controls
  • Polluted Chinese River Hospitalises 61

  • Extra Police And Military For Australian Aboriginal Towns
  • UN Warns Aging Populations Will Require New Approaches
  • Etruscans Were Immigrants From Anatolia In Ancient Turkey
  • The High Cost Of The Beijing Olympics

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement