Workers lay turf on a bank of Xinzhou River yesterday.

THE Xinzhou River pollution treatment project will be completed this year, according to the city's environment commission.

The project, which started in December 2008, is the largest restoration project on the river which is infamous for deteriorating water quality along with the Futian and Buji rivers.

At a cost of 200 million yuan (US$29 million), the work covers a 6-kilometer section, and includes the construction of flood control facilities and landscaping.

Waste water treated at the Binhe Waste Water Treatment Plant will be used to replenish Xinzhou River. However, the water quality would not be good enough for swimming, said the commission.

The government will spend 2.56 billion yuan on flood control, pollution treatment and drought prevention this year, the water affairs bureau said. This is a 6.5-percent increase on what was spent last year.

The city will try to complete 10 waste water treatment plants this year and integrate 23 village water plants. The construction of pollution treatment plants for the Futian, Buji and Longgang rivers will continue this year.

Compared with 2008, Xinzhou River was more heavily polluted last year while pollution in the Shawan and Guanlan rivers had been reduced, the commission said in its quarterly report in December last year.

Jiang Xinhui, vice director of the commission's ecological division, said Xinzhou River pollution was caused by waste water discharged by residents and factories along the river and insufficient sewage water treatment facilities.

The 7.85-kilometer Xinzhou River lies to the west of the Futian central business district. It starts at Meilin Reservoir in the north and runs south to Shenzhen Bay.

Source:Shenzhen Daily