Pollution turns Yellow River red

A HALF-mile section of China’s Yellow River turned “red and smelly” after an unknown discharge was poured into it from a sewage pipe.

The incident in Lanzhou, a city of two million people, follows a string of industrial accidents that have poisoned major rivers in China in the last year, forcing cities to shut down their water systems.

It wasn’t immediately clear what was tainting the section of the Yellow River.

Environmental officials took samples and were trying to determine if the sewage was toxic, the official Xinhua news agency said.

“Residents were alarmed to see a sewage pipe pouring red water into the country’s second longest river” on Sunday the agency said.

A photo from the local paper showed a city centre resident by a stretch of the river — a drinking water source for millions — that was rose-coloured instead of the usual milky brown. Other photos showed patches of bright red and pink.

An official from Yellow River Water Resource Committee in Lanzhou confirmed the pollution. He said they were still analysing the sample.

Environmental protection has taken on a new urgency for China following a November 2005 chemical spill in Songhua River in north-east China which forced the city of Harbin to shut down its water supply for days and sent toxins flowing into Russia.

China’s government says its major rivers, canals and lakes are badly polluted by industrial, agricultural and household pollution.

Kang Mingke, an official with Lanzhou’s environment protection bureau, said there were no chemical plants nearby, according to Xinhua. He said the red water could have come from central heating companies who dye their hot water to prevent people diverting it for their own use.