- South China’s major water reservoir has been plagues by excessive amounts of dumped garbage
- The dumped rubbish has formed across 200,000 square metres and is piled high at around one metre
- According to experts, the current state of the dam poses a threat to the drinking water source and residents’ safety
Excessive levels of waste has accumulated at one of the largest water conservancy projects in China.
The Lechang Gorge Reservoir in Shaoguan City, south China’s Guangdong province has been inundated with high levels of dumped waste, the People’s Daily Online reports.
Rubbish pictured at the site stretches across 200,000 square metres (2.1 million square feet), the space of around 28 football pitches.
What a load of rubbish! Refuse gathers at the Lechang Gorge Reservoir in Shaoguan City, south China’s Guangdong province
Disgusting levels of rubbish: The shocking images show the sheer size of the amount of trash that washed down shore at the dam
Workers have been attempting to clear the site of the rubbish for the past ten days and say they have five days left until it is clear
A road worker surnamed Huang told reporters that the giant pile of trash has been at the site for around 10 days and has caused a really bad small.
According to the head of the dam project, Chen Zhiyong, the river’s annual floods wash a lot of rubbish down the river.
The garbage carried mainly household items such as plastic, foam and even lunch boxes along with other solids from upstream villages and industrial plants.
The worrying factor is that the waste will release toxic pollutants ammonia and nitrogen into the water that currently provides drinking water for around 180,000 households.
A spokesperson for the reservoir said: ‘Littering directly in rivers is still a habit of many villagers and factories.’
He said cleaning up would not be easy: ‘We have run out of big boats and cleaning trucks can’t get in. We can only retrieve the rubbish by using small boats but it is slow and inefficient’.
After 10 days of cleaning, half of the rubbish has been cleared with the authority aiming to clear the rest over the next five days.
Lechang Gorge reservoir is a main part of the flood control system of the North River which is the second largest drainage system of the Pear River Basin.
Due to frequent rainfall, the water complex faces excessive junk every year ever since it was established in 2013.
Hard work: After 10 days of cleaning, half of the rubbish has been cleared with the authority aiming to clear the rest over the next five days
Garbage carried mainly household items such as plastic, foam and even lunch boxes along with other solids from upstream villages
Waste will release toxic pollutants ammonia and nitrogen into the water that currently provides drinking water for around 180,000 homes
