China's top coal province says 29 percent of water unsuitable for humans

Nearly a third of the surface water in Shanxi, China's biggest coal producing province, is so polluted that it cannot be used by humans, the local environmental watchdog said in a notice on Wednesday. The Shanxi Environmental Protection Bureau said in a report that 29 out of the 100 surface water sites tested in the first three quarters of 2016 were found to be "below grade five", which means that pollution levels are so high that the water has "lost functionality". China's water is graded into five categories.

Continue reading...