China Olympic Sailing City Frets Over Algae Bloom
Date: 30-Jun-08
Country: CHINA
Qingdao, which will host Olympic sailing events during the August Beijing Games, had asked coastal cities to help in clean-up efforts, and had already co-opted 10,000 local residents and troops, and hundreds of boats to dredge the resort town's bays.
"In guaranteeing the safety of surrounding waters, do the utmost to support and aid Qingdao in every item of work," Sunday's Qingdao Morning Post quoted Shandong province's governor Jiang Daming, as saying in work instructions to nearby coastal cities.
Algae blooms regularly blight the shores of Qingdao, a former German concession port where Chinese flock every summer to swim in relatively clean waters.
Authorities had so far cleaned 8,626 tonnes of floating weed from coastal waters and scooped up another 13,665 tonnes that had washed up on local beaches, a report posted on the Qingdao government website (www.qingdao.gov.cn) said.
"This is more severe than common algae outbreaks," a microbiology professor surnamed He at Qingdao's Ocean University told Reuters by telephone, adding that ferries to nearby islands had suspended services for several days.
Pictures carried by local media showed officials and soldiers raking up piles of spongy weed. A witness reported seeing trucks loaded with weed parked on local beaches.
Media reports, which referred to the green tide as "hu tai" meaning "water-borne lichen", said it had been caused by an untimely confluence of wind and currents influenced by stormy conditions in southern China.
"Such a large, protracted (outbreak) of water-borne lichen with many uncertain factors poses a severe risk. All departments at different levels should be clear about their work priorities ... to safeguard water quality for the Olympic sailing events," governor Jiang said.
China's coastal waters and inland lakes regularly suffer algae blooms, often exacerbated by pollution from chemical factories and fertiliser run-off from farms.
A major outbreak last year on eastern China's Tai Lake cut off drinking water to millions of residents in Jiangsu province's Wuxi city.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom and Li Jiansheng)
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