Chapter 40 Moaning Fen River

The Fen River, the mother river of the people of Shanxi, has been flowing on the land of Shanxi for thousands of years and has raised the children of the San Jin who have lived here for generations. Every elderly person in the area must remember the old song "People say Shanxi is beautiful" in the 1950s. There is a line in it - "The water in the Fen River is rushing".This set of lyrics vividly depicts a poetic scene of a river of clear water laughing and flowing. For many years, people have always given the most beautiful poetic imagination in their hearts to this "the second largest tributary of the Yellow River" with a total length of 710 kilometers in Shanxi Province.

From the perspective of social development laws, in the process of human social development, rivers have always carried the role of "agglomeration" of social civilization.The Fen River is no exception. The Fen River Basin used to be the most industrially concentrated and agriculturally civilized area in Shanxi Province. In the early days of reform and opening up, its industrial output value and agricultural output value accounted for 46% of the province's total industrial output value and 64% of the total agricultural output value. . In recent years, the "agglomeration" effect of the river has been particularly evident in the Linfen section downstream.

According to data, nearly 90% of the population and more than 80% of the industrial enterprises in the Linfen area are concentrated on both sides of the river in this section. Yes, with water, we can develop agricultural production and industrial production. However, today's Fen River has become a "smelly river". For the coastal residents, what they are facing is "disaster caused by water". Since the upper reaches of the Fen River Basin have focused on the development of extensive resource processing industries for a long time, the ecological environment has been severely damaged, resulting in serious pollution of the Fen River.

According to relevant statistics, as of now, there are thousands of coastal industrial and mining enterprises discharging wastewater into the Fen River.These enterprises use the clear and sweet Fen Shui, but discharge sewage that is "full of five poisons". Clean water can nourish the body and develop production, but the sewage flowing out of the sewage pipes of enterprises can poison life and the environment. The owners of Yanhe production companies are not ignorant of this simple chemical common sense, but in real life, driven by their own selfish desires, they do things that harm others and benefit themselves, provoking modern society with the most fearless and unscrupulous willfulness The "value bottom line" of civilized values!

A local environmental protection worker said that the components of the sewage are mainly industrial sewage and domestic sewage. After chemical testing and analysis, the main indicators such as chemical oxygen consumption, ammonia nitrogen and volatile phenol content in this water quality are 3 to 40 times higher than the minimum standard for surface water.That is to say, the water in some sections of the river has lost its irrigation function. At the same time, river water pollution has seriously affected the life and production of the people along the river. Among them, the farmers who have suffered the most are the farmers on both sides of the Fen River.Planting crops mainly depends on the water of the Fen River. If the water is polluted, the crop yield will be reduced by more than half, and no one dares to eat the ones that can barely "flower and bear fruit".

In Wucun Town, located on the west bank of the Fen River, the villagers have taken advantage of the proximity to the Fen River to reclaim nearly a thousand acres of arable land in recent years. However, the irrigation water for these arable land does not meet the fifth-class water standard stipulated by the state. In some sections of the river, people can feel that the river here is black and smelly only by their senses.A local villager said that when the wind blows, residents living on hillsides a few kilometers away can smell the stench of the Fen River water. By observing some coal-producing areas in Shanxi, we exaggeratedly say that "every spring is dry, and every river is polluted", which has become a true portrayal of the local "water environment".

Without the nourishment of water, how can crops survive?How do ordinary people live? So far, I can’t help but regret that at the beginning of the previous article, I proudly said that Fenhe “raised the children of the Sanjin who lived here for generations”. So far, we have every reason to utterly despise those involved while listening to the groans of Fenhe and shouting "protecting the environment is everyone's responsibility"!