Waste Dumped In China's Yangtze River Rises To Record Levels

November 14, 2007 6:45 a.m. EST

Beijing, China (AHN) - China's state media on Wednesday announced that the amount of waste dumped in the Yangtze River rose 3 percent last year, a record high in according to water authorities.

Hu Jiajun, spokesman for the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission, said some 30.5 billion tons of domestic and industrial waste was dumped into the country's longest river in 2006, an increase of 900 million tons from the previous year.

Hu said of the total amount of wastes dumped last year, domestic sources account for 9.7 billion tons while 20.8 billion tons came from industrial sewage.

It added that the quantity of sewage dumped in the river was twice as much as two decades ago.

The Asian Development Bank had warned last month that water pollution in country had reached "alarming" levels.

Stretching some 3,900 miles, the Yangtze River is also the world's third-largest river.