China City Moats Situation - Essay Example

China Moats Situation PREVENTING FUTURE WATER POLLUTION BY CHINA Moats in Neolithic societies in Northern China go as far back as 6000 BCE. Otherwise known as manmade ditches, moats have been a noticeable feature for millennia. Housing, public halls, animal hutches, and storage pits in Neolithic villages were surrounded by moats 6 to 8 m wide and 5 to 6 m deep. Moats represented a sophisticated distribution of space primary for fortification and defensive purposes. Today, moats serve a completely different purpose: tourist attraction and heritage preservation. Moats can no longer be forts and settlement walls as modern northern China cities are too expansive and advanced. How Chinese City Moats Polluted Over The Years. Nearly 33% of plant and household waste materials in China wind up into fresh water sources such as city moats without treatment (Lin 2014). This waste disposal routine has been running in China for over a decade, which is the key reason Chinese city moats are highly polluted. As of 2013, almost 80% of China’s major centers did not have treatment plants and only handful of them had plans to develop any. Additionally, underground water sources in 90% of these centers are toxic (Lin). It is the role of the Chinese government to make sure households and plants only dump well-treated waste into any water sources. However, the Chinese government has been lax to curb the conventional waste disposal trends and today deals with the world’s worst water pollution tragedy. As a result, a shortfall of fresh water in China is already a crisis as the World Bank categorized the issue as a “catastrophic” in 2012. About 50% of China’s population does not have access to fresh water from city moats. In effect, an estimated 66% of China’s remote areas, which have a population exceeding half a billion people, use toxic water from polluted city moats for domestic use (Lin). The government’s action plan takes the approaches of overhaul initiatives that require years to show any positive results. The degree and rate of pollution of china’s city moats requires very soon if not immediate action. As a result, enhancing the control of sludge would produce more immediate results than building new ones. To do this, China can acquire experience from campaigns against air pollution. This experience involves revealing information, persuading the Chinese population to partake, pinpointing sources of pollution, and lowering the release of wastewater. It is very possible to make the city moat be a part of modern China. By extending city moats to the country or respective city’s history, the Chinese will certainly accept them (Lu 1402). China is largely a conservative community and associating their environment with its history is easy and even sentimental. In the process, caring for this element of a city or way of living becomes a movement thriving under preservation policies and cultural heritage. As a result, associating the city moat with modern China’s history should make it part of the community from a sentimental and conservational perspective (Lu 1399). For instance, a deep moat surrounds Xian, Shaanxi’s city wall that serves as a landmark, tourist attraction, and source of historical pride and heritage for the city’s inhabitants and museum. A moat 52 meters in breadth surrounds Beijing that is a major tourist attraction (De Feo 3943). FORMING CAUSE AND CONTROL STRATEGY OF WATER POLLUTION Social. Scenery is a major contribution to the presence of locals and tourists around city moats (Lu 1401). For instance, tourists who sought to reach the Confucius Temple through a cruise on Qinhuai River could not use of five years ago because of its polluted nature. After enforcing control strategies and regulations on Nanjing moats, China enabled visitors use boats on Qinhuai River to enjoy the scenery individually. Along with the city of Nanjing, users of Qinhuai River experience its improvements day by day because of an improved sanitation ecology (Hu 2). The hygienic condition of the urban setting recovers markedly through enhanced water cleanliness and improved water quality of Qinhuai River’s tributaries. The living conditions of Chinese around Qinhuai River needs to recover radically with clean water in Qinhuai River’s network and the development of the urban setting (Zhang 70). Social advantages may improve and include increased and social utilization of the banks of Qinhuai River for recreation and exercise (Nanjing QInhuai River Environmental Improvement Project Office 5). Historical. The key urban region Nanjing is made up of three main water networks, which are the Qinhuai River, Jinchuan River, and the Beishili Channel (De Feo 3943). These networks are a big part of Nanjing’s history and should be considered significantly when designing plans to prevent future pollution of the river. Otherwise, altering the flow of these rivers and passages can affect Nanjing’s historical and cultural heritages that drive conservation movements (3943). In 2005, the Nanjing local government poured 3 billion Yuan (USD375 million) into cleaning up the Qinhuai River and enhancing tourist areas alongside its banks (China Daily 2006). However, this endeavor was unsuccessful as plants in Nanjing continued to dump untreated waste into Qinhuai River. In fact, later studies found out that pollution rates in Qinhuai River rose up by nearly 39% after the government’s measure to clean it up (China Daily 2006). In 2006, the Nanjing government promised to clean the river with a new measure by constructing a new dam between rivers Qinhuai and Jinchuan to hinder pollutants from continuing to spill into the Qinhuai River. The Nanjing government never built the dam. However, the Nanjing government pushed Nanjing Titanium Dioxide Chemicals Ltd to lower its output capacity and treat all of its waste materials (China Daily 2006). Economic. Economic factors play the biggest rules in this cause and control approach towards curbing water pollution in Nanjing (Nanjing Qinhuai River Environmental Improvement Project Office 8). Cities are quickly rising along China’s coasts that over exploit and pollute the environment in the long-term. This strategy seeks to solve issues that come up concerning urban moats, especially those pertaining the blockage of Qinhuai River, increase of water areas, and the worsening of water quality (Zhang 70). A leading step towards solving these issues is treating and improving urban moats in relation to nearby cities and their rivers such as the Qinhuai River and Jinchuan River. This step is clearly vital for the harmonious development of contemporary Chinese cities. This is a crucial economic fact for today’s urban planning and water conservation efforts that influence the quality of livelihood in China (Nanjing Qinhuai River Environmental Improvement Project Office 7). Market-based civic programs have been in progress in Nanjing the past five years (Hu 5). The programs exhibit positive results in terms of saving the government of public development funds while improving the quality of water in the city’s rivers. In late 2008, the Habitat Scroll of Honour Special Citation gave the Nanjing Municipal Government an “UN-HABITAT” award for its brave, special, standard, and all-inclusive renovation, renewal, and development along the Qinhuai River (Nanjing Municipal Government 24). The government mainly finances such civic initiatives even though it cannot meet the expense of completely constructing along the Qinhuai River. As a result, amassing capital, changing investment plans, and campaigning for the best distribution of urban resources are the government’s best options for investigating the most successful means of running market-based civic initiatives (Bei 2009). GREEN DEVELOPMENT PLAN A. Replenishing Module. The first step for implementing a green development and for Nanjing’s Qinhuai River is a replenishing module made up of two sub-modules. The first one is a sewerage-replenishing sub-module for inner Qinhuai River that will comprise of a 10.1 km drainage channel in the central and southern parts of Qinhuai River. This sub-module also includes the renovation of electricity supply to the Dachong Bridge pumping hub. The second sub-module is a water-replenishing sub-module for inner Qinhuai River at comprise of an opening pumping hub at Qi Qiao Weng with a 2.0 km water channel. This sub-module also involves the reinstatement of the current water gateway and building new water gateways on the Ming Yu, East Yu Dai, and South Yu Dai rivers. B. Sludge Treatment Plant and Wastewater Module. This module comprises three sub-modules. First, a sludge sub-module located east of Nanjing will encompass a 22.1 km drainage channel. Second, a wastewater treatment unit sub-module constructed east of Nanjing will encompass raising the treatment volume by 100,000 m3 daily in City East. Third, a river improvement sub-module in City East will entail the upgrading 16 km of Qinhuai River and its convergence with the Yun Liang River from Xi and Bei Village. C. Sludge, River Enhancement, and Water Replenishing Module. This module composes of two sub-modules. First, a sludge sub-module comprising of the construction of a 27.5 km drainage channel and extending the volume of the first pumping center situated in South Lake. Second, a river enhancement and water-replenishing sub-module will encompass rummaging the Long Jiang and building a square duct 450 m long. D. Storm Water Drainage Module. This module will involve building 29 storm drain passages and substituting 26.5 km of sewerage channels in Gu Lou, Xuan Wu, and Qinhuai. E. Sewage Treatment and Disposal Module. This step will encompass the building of a new treatment plant for sewage muck in the current Jiang Xin Zhou WWTP with a daily volume of 88 tones and a new public sludge dumping plant at Mountain Feng Huang with a daily volume of 1,070 m3. IMPROVING THE MANAGEMENT OF POLLUTION RESOURCE The Chinese government can opt for the EMP in an ecologically satisfactory way as a vital solution (Zhang 70). The EMP defines the processes and plans to conduct the mitigation courses of action and observation requirements in the course of the last three steps of the green development plan. Improving the management of pollution resource means adopting a low-cost ecological treatment technology. This technology includes systems for observing water quality and rating pollution intensities, irrigation machinery, and flood deviation innovations (Zi 2010). Policies that could decrease the city water pollution include a five-year plan drawn as an ecological program that oversees the accomplishment of step-by-step phases and project goals. These phases and goals can involve the machinery and manual cleaning up of china’s fresh water reserves and the strict banning of dumping of waste material by all organizations and individuals. Second, China can present and implement a policy for offering alternative and cleaner methods of dealing with waste. This policy can enforce the mandatory recycling of sludge from plants across the country with rigorous consequences for violating this policy and its detailed regulations. CONCLUSION Chinese moats no longer serve as forts and settlement walls since modern northern China cities are too expansive and advanced. Over the years, these moats have undergone significant pollution rates from neighboring cities plants and households’ poor waste disposal programs. A governmental action plan would undoubtedly accelerate the rate of improvement for the quality of fresh water in Chinese moats. Treating and improving China’s current moats in relation to nearby cities and their rivers such as the Qinhuai River and Jinchuan River. The government could amass capital, change investment plans, and campaign for the best distribution of urban resources in an effort to investigate the most successful means of running market-based civic initiatives. A proposed Green Development Plan entails a Replenishing Module, Sludge Treatment Plant and Wastewater Module, Sludge, River Enhancement, and Water Replenishing Module, Storm Water Drainage Module, and Sewage Treatment and Disposal Module. The government could introduce and implement a policy for offering alternative and cleaner methods of disposing plant and household wastes. Works Cited Bei, Xu. Rejuvenating the Qinhuai River. 2009. Beijing Review. Web. 22 Mar. 2015. China Daily. Chemicals pollute river in Nanjing tourist spot. 2006. People. Web. 10 Apr. 2015. De Feo, Giovanni, George Antoniou, Hilal Franz Fardin, Fatma El-Gohary, Xiao Yun Zheng, Ieva Reklaityte, David Butler, Stavros Yannopoulos, and Andreas N. Angelakis. The Historical Development of Sewers Worldwide. Sustainability, 6 (2014): 3936-74. Hu, Jingwei. Exploring the Sustainability of Control of Qinhuai River: A case study in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. 2014. Master thesis in Sustainable Development. Print. 22 Mar. 2015. 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Control Strategy of Water Pollution of the Moat-A Case Study of Jingzhou City Moat. 2010. Environmental Science and Management. Web. 22 Mar. 2015. Read More