Chapter 57 56. Taihu Lake Flood Control: The Pain of Development

The cyanobacteria crisis of 2007 suddenly made Lake Tai an environmental landmark in China.Lake Tai, located in the south of Jiangsu Province, is the third largest freshwater lake in China.There are more than 180 large and small lakes in the entire Taihu Lake water system, together with the large and small rivers entering and leaving the lakes, they form a cobweb-like water system.The actual water surface area of ​​Taihu Lake is 2338.1 square kilometers, and the bus line of the lake shoreline is 405 kilometers.It is located in the center of the Jiangnan water network. The river network has a large storage capacity and a relatively stable water level, which is conducive to irrigation and shipping, and thus prospers a piece of land.The total area of ​​the Taihu Lake Basin is 36,500 km2, with a population of 34 million. With less than 0.4% of the country's land area, it has created about 1/8 of the country's GDP. 3%, and the output value of the freshwater fish industry also occupies a relatively high proportion.But it is the well-developed township industry in the surrounding areas of Taihu Lake that has plunged Taihu Lake into a pollution crisis.Moreover, this crisis has been dealt with repeatedly, but has not been alleviated. As a result, in 2007, the Taihu cyanobacteria crisis that shocked China occurred.The cyanobacteria crisis in Taihu Lake has made the contradiction between economic development and environmental degradation extremely realistic, and it has also prompted the entire country to reflect on the industrial development path of the past three decades.

There was no big news on this day, except that the news hotline of the "Yangtze Evening News" was constantly complained by citizens of Wuxi City that the tap water flowing out of the faucet at home had a strange smell, and the color was wrong. "The water that flows out is like orange juice." , was later recalled. On the morning of May 29, 2007, most people in Wuxi woke up and turned on the tap to wash up, but they found themselves smelling a foul smell.A citizen picked up a towel and wet it and found that there was a smell. He thought that his towel had been left for too long to produce a peculiar smell, so he washed it carefully with soap, and found that the smell of the towel after washing was stronger.

Citizens called the water quality inspection department of Wuxi City, and the only advice they got was to go to the supermarket to buy purified water. A reporter from "Yangtze Evening News" went to supermarkets such as Carrefour and RT-Mart in Wuxi, and found that there were huge crowds of people in front of the purified water counters in the supermarkets.In order to reserve purified water, many citizens simply bought four or five boxes at once.The water ran out quickly.At this time, the cause of the smelly tap water was also found out. "Why does the tap water smell unstoppable all night? The reporter got an explanation from the water company: the continuous high temperature and high heat caused the accumulation and explosion of blue-green algae in Taihu Lake in a short period of time, which led to the deterioration of the water quality, and finally a large-scale tap water stink phenomenon appeared in the urban area. As early as On May 7, when the first large-scale algae outbreak occurred in Taihu Lake, the Wuxi City Water Company stopped using the water source of the Qianlongkou Water Plant. At present, the only main water source in Xicheng is the water source of the Nanquan Water Plant by the Taihu Lake. And this The only major water source was not spared, and on the evening of the 28th, the water source of the Nanquan Water Plant was also damaged by a blue-green algae outbreak." The Yangtze Evening News, which first reported the incident, wrote in an article.

This is the first time that the word "Spirulina" has appeared in front of most Chinese people.No one knew what kind of plant it was, what it produced, and what consequences it would bring. "Cyanobacteria is a kind of primitive and ancient algae prokaryotes, which often reproduce in large numbers in summer. After decaying and dying, a layer of blue-green and fishy-smelling foam is formed on the water surface, which is called 'water bloom'. The depressions around the vast lake area of ​​Taihu Lake The channel water bay has poor fluidity and eutrophication, which is an area where blue-green algae occurs frequently. Meiliang Lake, the water source of the urban area of ​​Wuxi City, belongs to this type of area.” Caijing magazine explained in a report after the incident.

In fact, before May 29, Wuxi City had already felt the deterioration of the water source.The three water source plants in Wuxi, Xiaowanli (Qianlongkou), Gonghu (Nanquan) and Xidong all draw water from Taihu Lake.However, starting from May 16, the water quality of Meiliang Lake in the water harvesting area of ​​Qianlongkou Water Source Plant deteriorated, and by May 22, the water source plant stopped supplying water.Wuxi's strategy is to increase the 20% share of water source normally undertaken by Xidong Water Plant to 30%, and the remaining 70% will be provided by Nanquan water source.On May 28, the water quality of the Nanquan water source, which provides most of the water supply to downtown Wuxi, seriously deteriorated. "The lake water began to turn black and emit a foul smell."That's why on May 29, many Wuxi citizens poured out smelly water from their taps.

As for the strategy to deal with cyanobacteria, in addition to manual salvage and disinfection with a large amount of potassium permanganate and bleaching powder, people have no good strategy in the short term.The most effective way to improve the water quality of Wuxi's water source in the short term is to speed up the flow rate of water in the water source, which is equivalent to changing the water once.The Wuxi Water Conservancy Bureau announced on May 30 that it would take emergency measures to divert water from the Yangtze River to improve the water quality of Taihu Lake. At the same time, it will reduce the water output from Taipu Sluice to maintain a certain water level in Taihu Lake, and ensure that all sluices along Taihu Lake will be closed to prevent external pollution sources.

When explaining this sudden blue-green algae crisis, most experts will mention that it has something to do with the bad weather in 2007 and the changes in the water regime of Taihu Lake.Because cyanobacteria in Taihu Lake grow and explode every year, it was only in 2007 that it was particularly serious, which triggered a water crisis in a medium-sized city, which caused a public outcry and the government urgently dealt with it. "Finance" magazine reported: "From January to April this year, the water temperature of Taihu Lake was 1.88 degrees higher than normal years. The average temperature in April was the highest in the past 25 years. After April 25, the water temperature of Taihu Lake has been maintained above 20 ℃, which is suitable for The growth and reproduction of algae. At the same time, from January to April this year, the water level of Taihu Lake was at the lowest point in 25 years, and the southeast wind prevailed in Taihu Lake in April and May, and the blue algae in the lake area were collected in the Meiliang Lake area.” There is another saying. , which is the lowest water level of Taihu Lake in Wuxi City area in 50 years.Low water level, high temperature, and the lack of rainfall in the past few days, and many other factors, led to the rapid outbreak of cyanobacteria in Taihu Lake, which was different from previous years, resulting in the smelly water flowing from the tap water taps of Wuxi residents and people's panic.

The deeper reason is also very simple. All the media and experts point the finger at pollution. "Finance" magazine reported that "the population density of the Taihu Lake Basin is seven times that of the national average, and the urbanization rate is as high as 50%. There are 37 large and medium-sized cities and county-level cities in the Taihu Lake Basin, and more than 60,000 large and small enterprises operate in it." The river basin is dotted all over." With 0.4% of the country's land area, this area has created one-tenth of the country's GDP, but at the cost of 5,551 square kilometers of water area and a total length of about 120,000 kilometers of river courses, the Taihu Lake system has been seriously polluted. "Finance and Economics" quoted the monitoring data of the Taihu Basin Administration as saying, "In recent years, the amount of industrial and domestic waste water directly discharged into rivers and lakes in the Taihu Lake Basin is about 5 billion tons; and the storage capacity of Taihu Lake itself at normal water levels It is only 4.4 billion tons, that is to say, the sewage discharged into Taihu Lake every year can fill the entire Taihu Lake and there is still a surplus.”

A reporter from "China Youth Daily" went to Zhoutie Town, an ancient town on the west bank of Taihu Lake and in the northeast of Yixing City, Jiangsu Province, and was surprised to find that "this small town with a total area of ​​only 73.2 square kilometers is famous in Jiangsu and even in the whole country." As a major chemical town, there were more than 300 chemical enterprises in the town at most. In 1998, the output scale of the chemical industry in the town accounted for 85% of the total economic output of the town. Due to the unique pollution of the chemical industry, the structural pollution of the town It is relatively prominent, causing serious pollution to the water quality of Taihu Lake." In the river channel of the town, "the water color is turbid, exudes a foul smell, and there are a lot of dirt of inexplicable color floating on it."

After the Taihu cyanobacteria water crisis broke out, Zhou Tiezhen almost became the target of public criticism, not only because Zhou Tiezhen, a major chemical city, was regarded as one of the sources of pollution, but also because the Wuxi Municipal Government subsequently notified, "After the Taihu Lake water ecological crisis, the concentration of small chemical enterprises Some enterprises in Zhoutie Town and Dingshu Town of Yixing City (under the jurisdiction of Wuxi City) continue to break the law against the wind, and continuously discharge sewage into Taihu Lake in excess of the standard at night."So the Wuxi government then punished five cadres for "poor pollution control", including the mayor of Zhou Tiezhen and the deputy director of the Environmental Protection Bureau of Yixing City.The small chemical factories in Zhoutie Town, which lost their protection, were also included in the list of closures.In this way, it is no wonder that the townspeople of Zhou Tiezhen were quite rude to the visiting China Youth Daily reporter, and even made a fuss.But no matter how unwilling they are, the closure of these heavily polluting factories is inevitable.

The "Southern Jiangsu Model" known for its township enterprises emerged in this area and became a model for many cities in China economically. At the same time, the pollution has become more and more serious. It's just that no one outside pays attention until it reaches a pollution tipping point. Caijing magazine reported that blue-green algae had already appeared in Taihu Lake, as early as the early 1970s.At that time, the Chinese economy had not yet reformed and opened up, so it was naturally difficult to mention large-scale industrial pollution.With the development of the economy, the cyanobacteria in Taihu Lake have become more and more rampant. "Its outbreak became a phenomenon, but it started in the 1980s. In the middle and late 1980s, there were two or three outbreaks every year, and the distribution range gradually expanded to Taihu Lake Mei. Liangwan and other areas; until the mid-to-late 1990s, the number of outbreaks increased to four to five times a year, and the outbreak area gradually expanded to the entire Great Taihu Lake; by 2000, further monitoring results showed that even the central area of ​​Taihu Lake It's starting to have a serious algal bloom." At the same time, the government has also begun to notice the pollution and deterioration, and has repeatedly launched actions to control water pollution. "The largest of these was the 'Focus on Taihu Lake Zero-point Compliance' action in December 1998—before midnight on January 1, 1999, all 1,035 key polluting enterprises in the Taihu Lake area had to meet emission standards. However, by the end of 1999, Compared with a year ago, the concentration of major pollutants in Taihu Lake has shown a certain degree of upward trend." After investigation, a reporter from Southern Weekly said that the reason is that pollution control actions failed to control pollution sources. Local governments are often reluctant to close local sewage plants because of fiscal revenues; the treatment of Taihu Lake sewage requires several cities in the Taihu Lake Basin to cooperate with each other. Cooperate, this will inevitably lead to the "disaster of the commons". Those cities that have been well managed have lost their fiscal revenue, but because other cities have not been treated, they can only enjoy a polluted Taihu Lake. In this way, no one is willing to treat sewage. Close factories in your own territory. "Finance" magazine said that in the past, the plans for treating Taihu Lake were too "underestimating the enemy". It turned out that the more the treatment was done, the more serious the pollution would be. It was found that in 2000, when Taihu Lake was required to be "cleared", the sewage discharge in the Taihu Lake Basin increased by a large amount.Moreover, what is even more deadly is that even if all the sewage outlets meet the discharge standards, the amount of sewage discharged will far exceed the pollution-holding capacity of Taihu Lake. Caijing quoted Xu Qianqing, former deputy chief engineer of the Ministry of Water Resources and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as saying: "If Taihu Lake is treated according to the current urban and rural sewage discharge and discharge standards, the water in the Taihu Lake Basin will never meet the requirements for clean surface water." In 2007, the cyanobacteria water crisis in Taihu Lake became the blessing of Taihu Lake.The panic it triggered in a city shocked the top government.On June 11, 2007, at the Taihu Lake Water Pollution Prevention Symposium, Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan attended and delivered a lengthy speech.Wen Jiabao, who did not attend the meeting, replied: "Taihu Lake water pollution control has been carried out for many years, but the problem has not been solved fundamentally. The Taihu Lake water pollution incident has sounded the alarm for us, and we must pay great attention to it." The central government attaches great importance to it, and the local government It also began to deal with pollution sources with iron hands, closing small factories with serious pollution. Wuxi, once a model of China's industrial development, has been mired in a battle to control pollution. This may be the same path that many cities in China will take in the future.Because China seems to have never found a way to get rid of the path of economic development-pollution-governance.