The campaign hunts for black, stinking rivers in China

Chinese officials first implemented the environmental project calling on people to work together to find "black and stinking" rivers, map pollution to improve water resources.

A sunny Sunday morning, Shi Dianshou departed for the Hanh Phuc River.

"It's not happy at the moment, " the 24-year-old environmental activist admitted as he drove north of Beijing's capital to inspect the river with a very poetic name.

Moving more than 40km, Shi parked next to a dirty and littered creek. The black sofa floated in the middle of the dark water, a hole filled with rubbish that adorned the west bank. A bra hung over the tree next to it, adding sarcasm to the shabby scene.

"I have seen many rivers like this," Shi complained as he walked along the water to assess dirt. "This scene makes me feel bad. I'm really sad."

Shi Dianshou, a 24-year-old environmental activist, covered his nose on the banks of the Happiness River in Beijing, China.(Photo: Guardian),

Shi is one of hundreds of volunteers across China who are searching for rivers where the government labeled " black and stinking" . In the framework of this campaign, the Ministry of Environment of China called on people to join in discovering places with serious polluted water, then listed as a list, proceeding to make the water clean again. Volunteers can post polluted locations and pictures of rivers on the WeChat account operated by the Ministry.

Since the campaign was launched in February this year, many Chinese people have used smartphones to identify and name more than 1,300 polluted places. The addresses added to the blacklist had previously included 1,850 contaminated names, Shi, who worked at Environmentalists in Action in Beijing, said.

Shi contributed the five rivers to this list, hoping his efforts will put pressure on the government and draw attention to the toxic water sources that authorities do not know.

"We think many black rivers have yet to be discovered," the activist said during a trip along the Hanh River. "We want to put such rivers on the list for the government to find a way to handle it."

A black sofa sits in the middle of a polluted river.(Photo: Guardian).

Decades of uncontrolled industrialization and urbanization mean a growing number of polluted rivers in China. In 2012, a senior official of China's Ministry of Natural Resources admitted that 40% of China's river water is seriously polluted, of which 20% are completely toxic.

Activists expressed hope that Environment Minister Tran Cat Ninh will improve the current heavy water pollution.

Mr. Tran attended the Royal College of London, England, in the 1990s, started as Minister of Environment earlier this year, he pledged to cope with pollution " unprecedented in history. human".

Within a few months, Beijing announced a major anti-pollution project called "Water Pollution and Clean Up Plan" , which is said to be the most rigorous ever. The "Black and stinking rivers" campaign is part of the plan in the hope of cleaning up water in China.

Environmental activists have given many positive comments to the plan, indicating this is the first time the government has mobilized the responsibility of ordinary residents in the fight against pollution.

"I am very happy that the government called on citizens to participate in the campaign," said Deng Fei, journalist and environmental activist, who compiled an online map of cancer villages for pollution in China. to speak.

Deng also launched a similar project in 2013, calling on Internet users to identify the 10 dirtiest rivers, but had to leave midway after his two colleagues were arrested by police.

With a cautious point of view, Deng identifies complex and systematic issues that cause water pollution that cannot be solved overnight.

"Having information does not mean we will handle pollution quickly , " he said. "But this is the first step and I believe that if there is government determination in pollution, we will move on to the second, third step."

The scene of heavy pollution on the Hanh Phuc River.Garbage is flooded in dark water.(Photo: Guardian).

One morning along the flooded river showed a great degree of pollution that the campaign faced, according to the Guardian.

"We have reported this situation to the environmental protection agency but no one has come ," Xing Wenhua, a 56-year-old farmer, is harvesting green onion in a field near the banks of the Hanh Phuc River, complaining.

Xing joked that the river was so polluted that he lost all his hair.

"I have to smell the smell that rises every day and it stops my hair from growing," said the bald farmer laughing. He said the river was contaminated quickly after China opened its doors in the late 1970s.

"It's good if the air and the river are clean again. When we were young, we used to drink river water."