Posts tagged ‘Groundwater’

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05/03/2015

China’s nuclear plant plans get new momentum – Business – Chinadaily.com.cn

State Council gives green light for two reactors at Hongyan River in Liaoning

China's nuclear plant plans get new momentum

China’s nuclear energy development plans got a fresh impetus on Wednesday after the State Council gave the green light for new reactors at the Hongyan River nuclear power plant.

According to industry sources, units 5 and 6 of the Hongyan River nuclear plant in the northeastern Liaoning province got construction approval from the State Council before the Lunar New Year.

“It is a big step forward for China to revive the industry and more nuclear projects are expected to start construction this year. However, the official documents are yet to be finalized,” a source in a State-owned nuclear company told China Daily.

New nuclear projects are also in the pipeline, the source said, adding that the moves would help optimize China’s energy mix amid mounting pressure from air pollution.

Tang Bo, an official at the National Nuclear Safety Administration, said earlier that the regulatory body has been working on the environmental impact assessment and safety inspection of nuclear projects including the Hongyan River nuclear project, the Shidao Bay nuclear demonstration project in Shandong province and units 5 and 6 of the Fuqing nuclear power plant in Fujian province.

“We have drawn up a draft list of new projects for final approval,” he told China Daily earlier. “Our job is to clear the potential risks and help with the technical preparation of the nuclear sites before the government’s final approval,” he said.

Following the Hongyan River nuclear project, units 5 and 6 of the Fuqing nuclear power plant are the next possible candidates for approval, experts said.

“The Fuqing nuclear project will possibly get the nod from the government in April at the earliest,” the source said.

The equipment purchase order for units 5 and 6 of the Fujing nuclear power plant, which uses the Hualong One reactor design, known as the third-generation nuclear technology, is nearly complete, the source said.

China, with the world’s largest number of nuclear power plants under construction, is now pushing ahead to embark on a program of new nuclear projects to reduce the proportion of fossil fuels in its primary energy consumption.

Last year, the State Council rolled out an energy plan to have a more efficient, self-sufficient, green and innovative energy production and consumption mechanism.

The plan targets to have 58 gigawatts of nuclear power in operation by 2020 and at least 30 gW under construction. To meet that target, China needs to add at least another 10 gW of installed capacity with approval of six to eight reactors each year, according to estimates from industry experts.

After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011, China suspended approval for nuclear plants in order to revise its safety standards. However, it lifted the ban on new nuclear power stations at the end of 2012, and said it would only approve projects proposed for coastal areas within 2015.

via China’s nuclear plant plans get new momentum – Business – Chinadaily.com.cn.

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26/04/2014

Government Study Finds 60 Percent of China’s Groundwater Polluted – Businessweek

At 59.6 percent of sites monitored by the Chinese government, the groundwater quality was “very polluted” or “relatively polluted”—that is, unfit for drinking—in 2013, according to a study released on Tuesday by China’s Ministry of Land and Resources.

A polluted canal in Beijing

The government tested 4,778 sites in 203 cities. The study showed that China’s water quality had worsened somewhat from the previous year, when 57.4 percent of test sites were classified as polluted.

Groundwater supplies about a fifth of China’s total water consumption. In the water-short north and northwest of China, groundwater accounts for 50 percent to 80 percent of water usage.

via Government Study Finds 60 Percent of China’s Groundwater Polluted – Businessweek.

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31/03/2014

10 Vital Things Politicians Should Talk About – WSJ

From: http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/03/31/10-vital-things-politicians-arent-talking-about/?mod=irt&mod=indiablog

Indian politics is disconnected from what India actually wants. A week before the largest democracy on Earth goes to the polls, here are 10 things the electorate is talking about even though most politicians aren’t.

1.     Unfulfilled Aspiration

If there is one thing two decades of liberalization has given us, it was a sense of hope that things can get better, but not at any cost. People want cheaper food, not cheap food. They want cheaper education, not cheap education. When people in villages have a little money, they prefer to send their children to a private school where there children are taught in English over public school where they learn in Hindi, staff are often absent and standards are low. People across India are aspirational.

They will give their vote to whoever taps into a person’s desire for a better future.

2.     Employability

India’s problem is no longer about employment, it is about employability. The trade association, National Association for Software and Services Companies says 75% of technical graduates and 80% of general studies graduates don’t have the skills to get a technical or call center jobs in a country where more than half of the 1.2 billion population is under the age of 25.

Young people want their lives to get better through the jobs they get. But we have to improve their skill sets first. The government has to take a step back and look at the lack of standards and quality that has overtaken our education system. Why are people still flocking to unaccredited colleges and institutes? Because they don’t have a better choice. It is easy to see where their frustrations come from. Unless someone fixes the lack of skills, a demographic nightmare is on its way.

3.     Food wastage and underweight children

Let us connect the dots between India’s inability to build granaries and cold storage centers and the hunger that exists in large parts of the country. India has the largest number of underweight and malnourished children in the world but it also wastes as much wheat each year  as Australia produces – 21 million tonnes.

People want someone to say they will fix this imbalance. Has a single candidate talked about this? You cannot argue that India cannot fix these things in the 21st century.

4.     Drinking Water

In 2012, the Water Resources Ministry essentially told Parliament that in time,groundwater will not be fit for human consumption. The aquifers are drying up and underground water is increasingly polluted or going saline. With India being the world’s largest user of ground water, there is a huge scarcity in the offing.

Add to that, 80% of untreated sewage in India flows straight to into drinking water sources such as rivers and groundwater.  Be it farmers or people living in the cities, access to clean water is by far one of the biggest issues for people across the country. There are ways to address this, such as rain water harvesting, but has a politician promised that on a war footing we can solve it?

5.     Electricity

Three hundred million Indians have never had access to electricity. So when theblackout in 2012 plunged nearly 600 million in darkness – for at least about half of them, it was just another day.

Meanwhile, in a coal abundant nation, all we have heard about energy in the last two years is that the mismanagement of the allocation of coal blocks to private companies resulted in a presumed loss of 1.85 trillion rupees ($31 billion) to the exchequer.

6.     Healthcare

India has barely one hospital bed per 1,000 population compared to the global average of nearly three beds per 1,000. We have one operating theater per 1,000 people. This at a time when the World Health Organization estimates that India is one of the few countries in the world where people have to pay the maximum proportion of their wages for private healthcare – and the Harvard School of Public Health calculates that the country’s economic losses due to non-communicable disease between 2012 and 2030 will be $6.2 trillion. There is an unprecedented crisis of public health and it cannot be resolved in a hurry.

7.     The Disease Burden

Our disease burden is one of the largest in the world. We lost 9.2 million productive years to heart disease in 2000. By 2030, the number is likely to rise to 17.9 million productive years. There are no immediate solutions for India and it spells potentially huge economic losses.

8.     Civilian Safety

Gun violence is one of the biggest killers in India. Nearly 40 million Indians own guns. Barely 15% of these are registered weapons. India has the second largest civilian ownership of guns, second only to the United States. Around 80% of all murders in India are carried out using these illegal guns. This is one of the biggest security challenges of India – but it is hardly addressed because many of those guns are connected to politics and politicians.

9.     Outdated Justice System

There are 30 million court cases pending in courts across India and a backlog of 66,000 cases in the Supreme Court. The system is sluggish. People don’t feel there is a justice system that can back them up or give them any sense of closure. India needs at least 75,000 new judges in the next 35 years and Indians want a government that can create more courts and hire more judges.

  1.  Inefficient bureaucracy

Communicating with an Indian bureaucrat is a terrible experience. They are unapproachable. You have to argue for your rights. Citizens want a voice and any way for them to be heard now is entirely absent.

Other than the elections, there is no other way for the electorate to show their frustration towards a system that is willfully unresponsive; that does not care about accountability. There is incredible frustration here – people, and businesses, are not willing to put up with such inefficiency much longer.

Hindol Sengupta is a senior editor at Fortune India magazine and author of “100 Things To Know And Debate Before You Vote” (Harper Collins). Follow India Real Time on Twitter @WSJIndia

 

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07/03/2013

* China begins underground water safety investigation

Xinhua: “China has conducted investigations and research on the condition of underground water to determine the extent of pollution, a senior official from China’s top economic planning agency said Thursday.

“Based on the results we’ve collected so far, the safety of underground water is generally guaranteed, particularly the safety of drinking water from underground,” Du Ying, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said at a press conference.

“But we can’t rule out the possibility that the pollution of underground water will worsen,” Du told the press on the sidelines of the annual session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, the top political advisory body.

He said the pollution of underground water is a problem not only in cities but also in rural areas, and is spreading from shallow aquifers to deeper aquifers.

Many Chinese were infuriated after some chemical plants in east China’s Shandong Province were exposed to have illegally discharged toxic water underground directly, thus threatening the safety of underground water.

Du said the State Council, or China’s cabinet, together with the local government, has sent out teams to investigate the pollution reports.

“Our investigation into the reported pollution is still under way and no conclusion has been reached,” Du said.”

via China begins underground water safety investigation – Xinhua | English.news.cn.

See also: https://chindia-alert.org/economic-factors/greening-of-china/

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