Greenpeace
Vivien Yau
Good afternoon everyone, I am going to introduce the project of water pollution conducted by GreenPeace.
GreenPeace is an international environmental protection organization. We also use non-violent direct ways to urge for positive changes. In order to keep our independent standard, we never receive donations from government, corporations or political parties.
GreenPeace was firstly founded in Hong Kong, and now, there are offices in both Beijing and Hong Kong. We pay attention on issues related to climate and energies, forest protection, pollutions and food and agriculture in Mainland China. For Hong Kong, we focus on climate and energies, air pollution and pollutions in Pear-River Delta.
The situation of water pollution in China now is very serious, especially for Pear-River Delta. This area has been developed for 30 years, and highly industrialized. Why the situation is so serious? Firstly, the companies did not realize their pollution information. Secondly, the legal system is not well built to restrict the pollutions. Thirdly, the local government always pays attention on the polluting process instead of the origins of production.
Companies in Pear-River Area use various ways to escape their responsibilities to environment. They arrange the pipes far away from the factories, and only pollute at night.
In Pear-River Delta, Hong Kong capitals own a large proportion of factories. Hong Kong people made a lot of money in this way but they never think about taking environment responsibilities.
The work of GreenPeace focuses on harmful substances. In 2009, GreenPeace did a research on water pollution in Pear-River Delta. Five factories were investigated. All the sewage collected outside the factories contained harmful substances.
In 2010, a press conference was held by GreenPeace talking about the fish in Yangtze River. In fish of Yangtze River, there was PFOS, which may lead to sexual precocity of babies. This led to a wide discussion in the society on harmful substances. Apart from PFOS, there are also NP and OP, which could also lead to sexual precocity and other diseases.
GreenPeace is urging for clean production. For factories, they should know about what they has polluted into the river. And for government, a thorough legal system should be built up to eliminate water pollution.
Acknowledge:
Documenting/文字記錄: Emma Wu, Lilian Hou