中国的水敢游泳吗？更别说喝了！(图)2369084x

http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/2013-02-20t105353z_2077984053_gm1e92k1.jpg?w=720&h=480&crop=1浙江瑞安的河流遍布垃圾(图片：路透社）本文译自《时代杂志》（Time）3月6日（周三）的报道。金增敏（Jin Zengmin）决定赌一把。上个月，这位浙江省的眼镜企业家宣布如果当地的环境保护局局长敢在附近的一条河中仅仅游泳20分钟，他将提供32，000美元的奖励给他。金的下注在新浪微博宣布，在网上风传。果然不出所料，这位环保干部拒绝在受污染的水中游泳。在超过三十年的经济繁荣后，中国面临着严峻的环境挑战，这肯定会在目前正在北京进行的年度秘密会议全国人大上讨论。空气污染覆盖数百个城市，并且全国广大地区的土壤已被污染。数以千计的河流也已经被中国快速的城市化和工业化给毁了，就像在金的故乡瑞安市的水路一样，那是在上海附近的一个小城市，那里有100多家制鞋厂。金告诉《时代杂志》:“我小时候，人们在河中游泳或洗菜，但是这些工厂使用化学原料制造鞋子，并将它们的工业废水直接排入河流。”金在新浪微博发布的照片中，河面上覆盖着漂浮的垃圾。事实的真相可能更惊悚。金声称有腐烂的气味。12月8日，金的妹妹死于肺癌，年仅35岁。他指责水质污染导致了她的死。金说: “当我姐姐在上海大肿瘤医院接受治疗时，我们发现有许多患者来自我的家乡。他们身患各种癌症，而令人惊讶的是大多数的癌症患者是30多岁到50多岁。他们都还年轻。我意识到这些癌症可能与在我们家乡的水污染有关系。”金的妹妹去世后，他打电话给当地的环境保护局，并要求他们检查河中的水污染。金说，官员告知他这条河被一些生活垃圾弄脏，但水仍符合国家质量标准。金拍案而起并在网上下赌注。不久，当地一家报纸进行了一项原始的实验来测试这条河的毒性，他们把活鱼放入从河里取来的水中。两个小时后，鱼就死了。金说:“我打赌是因为我有信心河里的水是有毒的。”今年一月，空气污染在微博是最热门的话题之一，而微博是中国人可以表达他们不满的少数公共场所之一。面对市民的愤怒，北京市政府推出了防污措施，企图以此来抵制创纪录的雾霾。二月份变成了水污染月。在金的赌注成为网上热门话题后，中国的环保人士邓飞（Deng Fei音译）鼓励微博用户张贴自己家乡被污染的河流图片。成千上万的人把当地恶臭的河流照片贴出回应。当地的环保人士说中国有足够的资金和技术实力来清理河流。那么为什么没做呢？当局不想。地方政府依赖污染工厂来支撑当地经济，地方官员知道他们的晋升取决于保持高增长率。尽管如此，中国老百姓已经不再满足于仅仅经济发展，他们到微博表达自己的不满。水专家和公民和环境事务协会的创始人马骏（Ma Jun音译）说:“金增敏和其它微博用户的上诉迫使人们面对水污染问题，并吸引更多的人加入防污运动。（网上行动）可以阻止地方政府与制造污染的厂家同流合污。”同时，中国经济增长的代价越来越高昂沉重。中国大多数的地下水受到了污染。雾霾笼罩着东部沿海地区。土壤污染是全国性的，但是污染糟糕的程度鲜为人知，因为确切的数字一直被认为是“国家机密”。环境举报人一直被殴打和监禁。最近几年已经扩散到全国的抗议活动跟环境污染问题有关。去年六月，中国西部的四川省德阳市数百名愤怒的村民举行了示威游行，因为他们的农作物被工业废水毁了。村民们很生气，他们占领了当地的政府部门，并与警方发生冲突。12月31日位于中国中部地区的山西省一间化学工厂水管破裂，泄漏了38.7吨苯胺，这是用来制造工业化学品的原料且对人体有毒。苯胺流入了一条河流，这条河是中国北方超过一百万人的饮用水源。但是当地政府隐瞒化学品泄漏的消息五天。这样的环境污染噩梦无数，遍布全国，引发国人愤怒。金问：“如果我们中国人都死于污染造成的癌症，我们的经济增长有何意义？”Jin Zengmin was in a betting mood. Last month, the eyeglass entrepreneur from eastern China’s Zhejiang province announced that he would offer a $32,000 reward to the chief of the local environmental-protection department if he dared to swim in a nearby river for a mere 20 minutes. Jin’s wager, which was announced on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like social-media service in China, turned viral on the Internet. The environmental cadre, unsurprisingly, declined to swim in the polluted water.After more than three decades of economic prosperity, China faces serious environmental challenges that are sure to be discussed during the National People’s Congress, the annual conclave currently underway in Beijing. Air pollution blankets hundreds of cities, and the soil in vast parts of the country is contaminated. Thousands of rivers too have been ruined by China’s rapid urbanization and industrialization, like the waterway in Jin’s hometown, Rui’an, a small city near Shanghai that is home to more than 100 shoe factories. “When I was a child, people swam or washed vegetables in the river,” Jin told TIME. “But those factories use chemical raw materials to make shoes and dump their industrial waste directly into the river.”(PHOTOS: Root of the Nation: Zhang Kechun Photographs China’s Yellow River)In photographs posted by Jin on Sina Weibo, the river surface is covered by floating rubbish. What lies beneath could be even more dangerous. The smell, Jin alleges, is putrid. On Dec 8, Jin’s sister died of lung cancer at the age of 35. He blames water pollution for her death. “When my sister received medical treatment in big cancer hospitals in Shanghai,” Jin says, “we found that many patients there are from my hometown. They have various cancers, and what is astonishing is that most of the cancer patients are in their 30s to 50s. They are still young. I realized these cancers may have something to do with the water pollution in our hometown.”After Jin’s sister died, he called the local environmental-protection department and asked them to check for water contamination in the river. Jin says he was told by officials that the river was fouled by some household garbage but that the water still met national quality standards. Outraged, Jin took his bet online. Soon, a local newspaper conducted a crude experiment to test the river’s toxicity: they placed a live fish into water fetched from the river. Two hours later, the fish died. “I made my bet because I’m confident the water in the river is poisonous,” Jin says.(MORE: Spring Sandstorms Add to China’s Bad-Air Misery)In January, air pollution was one of the hottest topics on Weibo, one of the few public places where Chinese can express their grievances. Faced with citizen outrage, the Beijing government unveiled antipollution measures to try to combat the record smog. February turned into water-pollution month. After Jin’s wager became an Internet sensation, Deng Fei, a Chinese environmental activist, encouraged Weibo users to post pictures of polluted rivers in their hometowns. Thousands of people responded with photographs of fetid local waterways.Local environmentalists say that China has enough money and technological prowess to clean up its rivers. The missing ingredient for an environmental campaign? Official motivation. Local governments depend on polluting factories to buoy local economies; local bureaucrats know their promotions are contingent on keeping growth rates high. Still, Chinese citizens are no longer sated simply by economic advancement and have taken to Weibo to express their dissatisfaction. “The appeals made by Jin Zengmin and other Weibo users forces people to face up to water pollution and have attracted more people to join the antipollution campaign,” says Ma Jun, a water expert and founder of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs. “ can prevent local governments from standing in line with the heavy polluters.”(MORE: Beijing Chokes on Record Pollution, and Even the Government Admits There’s a Problem)Meanwhile, the price of China’s economic success continues to soar. Most of the country’s groundwater is tainted. Smog envelops the eastern seaboard. Soil pollution is pandemic, although just how bad it is few know because the exact figure has been deemed a “state secret.” Environmental whistle-blowers have been beaten and jailed. Many of the protests that have proliferated nationwide in recent years are related to environmental issues. Last June, hundreds of angry villagers from Deyang city in western China’s Sichuan province held a protest march after their crops were destroyed by what they said was industrial waste. The villagers were so angry that they occupied the local government office and clashed with the police.On Dec. 31, a broken pipe at a chemical factory in central China’s Shanxi province caused a leak of 38.7 tons of aniline, which is used to make industrial chemicals and is toxic to human beings. The aniline spilled into a river that serves as a source of drinking water for more than 1 million people in north China. Yet the local government hid information about the chemical leak for five days. Public outrage ensued, just as it has across the country after countless other environmental nightmares. Asks Jin: “If we Chinese die of cancer caused by pollution, what’s the meaning of economic growth for us?”Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/03/06/in-china-water-you-wouldnt-dare-swim-in-let-alone-drink/#ixzz2NEEt4PiG