Dead fish...dead rivers!

CNN in Hong Kong reported today... 

The Fuhe River is the scene of the latest disturbing example of river pollution in China.

Authorities cleared about 110 tons, that's 220,000 pounds of dead fish from a 40-kilometer (18 mile long) section of the river in the central province of Hubei, the state-run news agency Xinhua reported Wednesday. 

The cause of the deaths, provincial environmental officials said, was the discharge of high levels of ammonia into the water by a local chemical plant in Yingcheng, outside the city of Wuhan. Samples taken at a water outlet from the plant on Tuesday indicated that ammonia density reached 196 milligrams per liter, a level "far in excess of the national standard," Xinhua reported, citing the provincial environmental protection department.

 Toxins in lakes offer strange surface contaminants...unexplained, yet for the color and the devastation that is ever present.

Lake Toxins in a Chinese lake near the Yangtez.

The World Health Organization says that natural levels of ammonia in groundwater are normally below 0.2 milligrams per liter and that surface waters can contain as much as 12 milligrams per liter. The Hubei environmental authorities ordered the company that runs the plant, Hubei Shuanghuan Science and Technology Stock Co., to suspend operations at the plant and sort out its pollution controls.

China has the most polluted rivers in the world, and some of the most threatening health problems related to filthy water.  

Citarum River

Yangtez (Yellow) River

These recent photos of life along the river show conditions that many of us can hardly imagine...but this is how life is in many countries of the world, including India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Russia and more...


The developed world is not exempt. In the USA the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers are danger zones, if not as bad as the Ganges and the Yangtez. Water, our most important resource, is threatened the world over.