Pollution Has Put Yangtze On Brink Of Catastrophe
The fabled ________________ River, the third-longest in the ________________, is already dying
from _______________________ and could be dead within _______________ years.
The river’s problems reflect the _______________ _________________facing the world’s most
highly __________________________ country.
China’s _________________________ people are already short of supplies because of prolonged
_____________________ in many regions — and much of what remains has been
__________________________ by ___________________________________.
About _____________________ of all waste _________________ produced in China — some 25
billion ______________________________ — flows into the river, but more than ___________________
of it is _________________________ beforehand.
Matters have been made worse by the _____________________________ of the controversial
________________ _________________ __________, which environmentalists say has changed the
______________________ content of the river, as well as creating a huge __________________ dump
in its reservoir.
Yuan Aiguo, a professor at the China University of Geosciences based in the ________________
port of Wuhan, said: “Many officials think the ___________________________ is nothing for the
Yangtze, which has a large _____________________ flow and a certain capability of _____________________________, but the pollution is very serious.”
______________________ waste and sewage, _______________________ pollution and
__________________ discharges were to blame for the river’s _________________________ health,
the experts said.
The river, the ___________________ in the world after the _______________ and the Amazon, runs
from Qinghai and __________________ in the remote far west, through 186 booming cities,
before emptying into the sea at ________________________. For the futuristic city’s 20 million
residents, the _______________ of the river could be critical. Lu Jianjian, a professor at
Shanghai’s East China Normal University, said: “As the river is the only source of
_______________________ water in Shanghai, it has been a great _______________________ for
Shanghai to get _____________________ water.”
It is not only ____________________ that could
suffer if the water of the ______________________
becomes __________________. Along with the
__________________ River, it has been earmarked
as part of ___________________ ambitious $60
billion south-north water ___________________
scheme — a plan to pump 45 billion cubic
metres (1.6 trillion cubic feet) of water per year
from _______________________ waterways, via
______________, to the parched north by 2050.
_______________________________ fear that unless
local governments and _______________________
become serious about cutting
________________________, most of the water
shipped north will not be fit to ________________.
Professor Lu said that contamination has reduced the number of ___________________ living in
the _________________ from 126 in the mid- 1980s, to 52 four years ago. The Yangtze
__________________ may have already become the first cetacean to be made ___________________
by humans.
____________________________ complain that the Three Gorges Dam has ________________ fish
___________________________, leading to a catastrophic ____________________ in catches. Officials
say the change in the ________________________ content of the water from the _____________
construction is _____________________ fish. Large amounts of __________________________ have
built up in its ___________________________________, which will fall by about 40 metres (131ft)
each _______________________, leaving a huge area of ________________________ land that experts
fear will _____________ with ___________________________, and breed __________________________.