China to launch groundwater monitoring network amid concern

A water well by the road side north of Tieshan. (Credit: Vmenkov, via Wikimedia Commons)

China plans to launch a new groundwater monitoring network in three years, the announcement of which comes amid growing public concern over industrial and agricultural pollution in the world’s most populous nation, South China Morning Post reported.

The implementation of the new network is part of a series of proposed revisions to China’s 20-year-old groundwater standards. The current standards are outdated and only about 11 percent of the country is presently monitored for groundwater.

Under the government’s current standards, organic chemicals from petrochemical industries — not considered a significant pollutant in the 1990s — are relatively unchecked. One Chinese researcher said that the standards should be updated on a five-year basis to compensate for economic growth.

Image: A water well by the road side north of Tieshan (Credit: Vmenkov, via Wikimedia Commons)