Yellow River at record low level

Water levels along
the Yellow River were at their lowest in 50 years, AFP reported. The State Environmental
Protection Agency said that the reduced volume of flow, combined with a lack of effective
pollution curbs, were likely to affect the quality of drinking water supplies for millions of
people.
The agency has adopted special measures to deal with the problem, including
the mon-itoring of water How and threats to close down factories that discharge waste into
the river. It would take precautionary measures if water flow dropped below 470 cubic
metres per second and the discharge of waste would he strictly governed, with particular
anention being paid to sewage treatment plants and industries such as smelting and
paper making. In emergency cases, when the water flow fulls below 250 cubic metres per
second, plants that breached the regulations would either be closed down or have their
production scale reduced.