Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/04/26/china.denim.water.pollution/
China's famed Pearl River under denim threat
By Emily Chang, CNN
April 26, 2010 12:48 p.m. EDT
Guangzhou, China (CNN) -- On the banks of the Pearl River, vendors set up shop daily at the Luwei village market. Mr. Liu wanders through the stalls at dusk, selecting vegetables and fish from the local fishmonger for dinner. As the sun sets on the murky river, he marvels at the disturbing transformation of the waterway he calls home.
"The water has turned dark and black," he says.
"People used to swim in it," a cabbage hawker says across the market. "We know it's polluted, but what can we do?"
The Pearl River has sustained Chinese civilization for ages, but over the last few decades, civilization has not been kind to the river. It has become a dumping ground for debris, floating among massive algae blooms and even pig carcasses. Agricultural runoff is one of the river's biggest threats, next to industrial pollution.
The river is the lifeblood of the "world's factory floor," thousands of factories that produce the world's toys, mobile phones, computers, textiles and more.
It is also the blue jean capital of the world.
The township of Xintang, nestled in the northeastern part of the river delta, is an amalgamation of textile, denim and dyeing facilities. Inside, workers snap buttons on jeans so fast you can barely see their hands move.
The Chinese government estimates Xintang produces 200 million pairs of jeans per year including 60 different foreign brands. That is just under half of the 450 million pairs of jeans sold annually in the United States.
But what blue-jean clad consumers everywhere probably don't realize is the process by which denim is made may be poisoning China's water supply.
Satellite images reveal the part of the Pearl River adjacent to Xintang's blue jean factories indeed runs black. The nearby riverbank is piled with trash, including denim scraps...
China's famed Pearl River under denim threat
By Emily Chang, CNN
April 26, 2010 12:48 p.m. EDT
Guangzhou, China (CNN) -- On the banks of the Pearl River, vendors set up shop daily at the Luwei village market. Mr. Liu wanders through the stalls at dusk, selecting vegetables and fish from the local fishmonger for dinner. As the sun sets on the murky river, he marvels at the disturbing transformation of the waterway he calls home.
"The water has turned dark and black," he says.
"People used to swim in it," a cabbage hawker says across the market. "We know it's polluted, but what can we do?"
The Pearl River has sustained Chinese civilization for ages, but over the last few decades, civilization has not been kind to the river. It has become a dumping ground for debris, floating among massive algae blooms and even pig carcasses. Agricultural runoff is one of the river's biggest threats, next to industrial pollution.
The river is the lifeblood of the "world's factory floor," thousands of factories that produce the world's toys, mobile phones, computers, textiles and more.
It is also the blue jean capital of the world.
The township of Xintang, nestled in the northeastern part of the river delta, is an amalgamation of textile, denim and dyeing facilities. Inside, workers snap buttons on jeans so fast you can barely see their hands move.
The Chinese government estimates Xintang produces 200 million pairs of jeans per year including 60 different foreign brands. That is just under half of the 450 million pairs of jeans sold annually in the United States.
But what blue-jean clad consumers everywhere probably don't realize is the process by which denim is made may be poisoning China's water supply.
Satellite images reveal the part of the Pearl River adjacent to Xintang's blue jean factories indeed runs black. The nearby riverbank is piled with trash, including denim scraps...