英闻天下——353 Understanding Water and Groundwater Pollution

 　　Chinese social activist¹ is accusing Weifang City factories of illegally discharging chemical waste into 1,000 meter deep wells.

 

　　In response, the Shandong provincial² environment protection department has sent 320 officers to over 700 suspected factories to investigate.

 

　　24 hours later, regulators announced none of the factories are using deep wells to dump waste water.

 

　　The Weifang city government is offering a 100,000 Yuan reward to anyone who can report specific violators.

 

　　The public seems unconvinced.

 

　　Director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs Ma Jun says deep well discharges are not the only cause of underground water pollution.

 

　　"In our collection of records of violations³, there are cases of factories discharge chemicals directly into the pit or well, which cause serious contamination. Having said that, the most common practice is to discharge chemicals into rivers and lakes, and eventually all these polluting chemicals go to the ground aquifer⁴. This is the major cause of the widespread contamination of ground water especially in North China."

 

　　The China Geological Survey shows about 90 percent of underground water is not drinkable, with 60 percent badly polluted.

 

　　Monitoring data from 118 cities shows nearly 64 percent of cities have is severely⁵ contaminated underground water, 33 percent mildly polluted, while only 3 percent of cities have generally clean water.

 

　　China's national government cabinet The State Council issued a guideline last February to regulate the use of water and," tighten⁶ supervision⁷ over the exploitation of underground water.

 

　　And the government has allocated⁸ 500 billion yuan for the prevention and control of water pollution in major drainage areas from 2011 to 2015.

 

　　Ma Jun says the rules will still be difficult to implement⁹.

 

　　"I think the difficulty is that the protection given by the local government to the polluters, which are major tax payers and job creators, and also the fact that the judicial¹⁰ system needs to be future improved and more independent. All these are deep rooted problems that can not be solved quickly."

 

　　He says extensive public participation¹¹ is needed to check the malpractices damaging our limited water resources.

 

　　For today on beyond Beijing, I'm Zengliang.

1 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

2 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

3 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

4 aquifer   

n.含水土层

参考例句：

• An aquifer is a water-bearing rock stratum such as sandstone and chalk.地下蓄水层是一些有水的岩石层，如沙岩和白垩岩。
• The wine region's first water came from an ancient aquifer.用来灌溉这个地区葡萄园的第一批水来自古老的地下蓄水层。

5 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

6 tighten   

v.(使)变紧；(使)绷紧

参考例句：

• Turn the screw to the right to tighten it.向右转动螺钉把它拧紧。
• Some countries tighten monetary policy to avoid inflation.一些国家实行紧缩银根的货币政策，以避免通货膨胀。

7 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

8 allocated   

adj. 分配的 动词allocate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The Ford Foundation allocated millions of dollars for cancer research. 福特基金会拨款数百万美元用于癌症研究。
• More funds will now be allocated to charitable organizations. 现在会拨更多的资金给慈善组织。

9 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

10 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。

11 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。