A swath of algae covered the surface of Hangzhou’s Hucheng River this week, possibly threatening the maritime organisms within, Tencent News reports.
The Hangzhou Qingtai Water Factory stopped taking water from the river and transferred the contaminated water to sewage pipes via pumps. While the Environmental Department tested the algae and found that it wasn’t poisonous, Hangzhou has temporarily terminated its use as an alternate water source (thankfully).
Emergency measures have been taken to increase water supply in Qiantangjiang and clear the algae through sewage pipes.
The Environment Agency of Hangzhou City said that the river showed higher levels of algae than in previous summers.
The algae invasion this year was the largest in scale due to a number of factors. First, the high levels of rainfall this summer led to contaminants entering the water from the riverside and from upstream. The river velocity was low, and high temperatures also contributed to the algae reproduction. Experts say that human fishing activities worsened the pollution as well.
[Images via Tencent News]
By Christy Lau