Kierstin Lilly
In Beijing China there has been a large amount of environmental destruction along the Yangtze River. It is said that “for numerous reasons, the forests on both sides of the river have been seriously degraded”, which had led to bare mountainsides and made the area more prone to natural disasters. The degrading is also causing several problems for the 30 millions people upriver from the reservoir who are having to deal with polluted water due to the fact that the erosion along the banks is preventing the river from flushing out waste. The harmful conditions are also the reason that 1.4 million people, and counting, are being relocated to protect them from the high chances of landslides and rising polluted waters. “The garbage was so thick in places that people could walk across it” said the China Daily newspaper. To help this cause, Chongqing, a city upriver from the reservoir will invest 28 billion Yuan in the upcoming three years.
This story is very unsettling in many aspects. It is apparent to me that this problem could have and at all costs should have been avoided. The reservoir did not become so polluted and degraded overnight so one huge question in my mind is, how exactly did it come to this point? China is an extremely populated country which, in my mind, pollution could be a problem with that many people but on the other hand with that many people wouldn’t there be a better system of removing waste. And with all of the money invested in fixing the problem already created I don’t see the point in relocating 1.4 million people and an additional 300 thousand people to keep them from harm when there are already ongoing efforts to fix the issue. And to reiterate my point, this whole problem could have easily been avoided. If these people have the money to invest 28 billion Yuan to fix the pollution, I think they could invest some money to stop further pollution as well.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iN1YdN5bPbs3YGvedjsBbJKjI5Uw
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