Plans to Clean Up Polluted Lake Tai

By Juliana Chan
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

ZHOUTIE, China - China has announced a multi-billion dollar plan to clean up the severely polluted Lake Tai in Eastern China's Jiangsu Province.  An algae infestation of toxic cyanobacteria forced the suspension of water supplies to millions of people earlier this year and turned the lake fluorescent green.  At least two million people living and working around the lake had to stop drinking or cooking with their main source of water.

As The New York Times reports, "the outbreak confirmed the claims of a crusading peasant, Wu Lihong, who protested for more than a decade that the region's thriving chemical industry, and its powerful friends in the local government, were destroying one of China's ecological treasures."

Despite his concerns, Mr. Wu was arrested by authorities shortly before the algae infestation.  In August, he was sentenced to three years "on an alchemy of charges that smacked of official retribution."

Although China has tried to address the country's environmental issues, the ruling Communist Party treats environmental advocates as bigger threats than the "degradation of air, water and soil that prompts them to speak out."

Environmentalists in China face rich and corrupt officials who treat them with "lukewarm tolerance [or] icy suppression."  Mr. Wu, however, established bold and courageous, media-savvy environmental work that made Lake Tai the focus of intense regulatory scrutiny.  In effect, Mr. Wu was still vulnerable as he and his wife lost their jobs.  Additionally, the local police detained and interrogated him, while government and factory owners tried to bribe him with contracts, gifts, and jobs.

From when he began his crusade in 1998 till 2006, Mr. Wu sent 200 reports of pollution and regulatory violations to the environmental protection agency of Jiangsu Province.  Although Mr. Wu acquired allies in those he helped, he was also making enemies.

On April 13, 2007, dozens of police and state security officers raided Mr. Wu's farmhouse, arresting him and seizing documents and a computer.  He was later indicted on two charges of blackmail, including extorting money "from the Communist Party Committee of Zhoutie by threatening to report pollution problems."  His indictment was revised, however, dropping the blackmailing charge and adding a new charge for "fraud" dealing with a steel company he was contracted to work for in 2003.  The three indictments claim that Mr. Wu confessed to the charges.

Mr. Wu said in court that he was forced to sign a written confession and that he was innocent.  He said the police deprived him of food and water and forced him to stay awake for five days and nights, until he signed a written confession.  The judges, however, ruled that "Mr. Wu could not prove he had been tortured" and thus his confession was valid.

Shortly after Mr. Wu's trial, his colleague Mr. Hang, a sundry shop owner, handed over photos, clippings, and documents to a reporter.  It was a collection of over a decade of environmental work that he no longer had use for as "environmental work had become too risky."

With the algae infestation affecting the drinking water of two million people, local officials initially called it a "natural disaster."  The state media, however, exposed chemical factories dumping waste into the lake.

A notice posted Friday on a government website announced plans to spend 108.5 billion yuan ($14.4 billion) for a five-year Lake Tai cleanup campaign.

For more information, please see:

IHT - China to spend billions cleaning up polluting Lake Tai - 26 October 2007

BBC News - China to clean up polluted lake - 27 October 2007

The New York Times - In China, a Lake's Champion Imperils Himself - 14 October 2007