The plan is focused mainly to protect drinking water resources for urban residents living in the proximity of the Songhua river, to accelerate urban sewerage programs, to reduce industrial pollution, and to enforce monitoring and research of the local environment.

Under the plan, polluted water, trash, wastes and industrial pollutants flowing into the river, will be well treated, while protected water reserves will be established in the area.

Sewerage disposal projects in 15 major cities in the northernmost Heilongjiang province, including the provincial capital Harbin, and such cities as Jiamusi, Qiqihar and Daqing along the river, have been listed in the 10th on-going national Five Year Plan (2001-2005).

"The water quality of the Songhua River can be controlled initially by the year 2005 and improved remarkably by around 2015," said Li Weixiang, director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau.

The official said that the Songhua River's pollution also concerned environmental diplomatic ties with Russia on its Far East region.

Flowing through Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, the 1,840-km Songhua River, which rises in China's northeastern Changbai mountains, converges with the Heilong River and eventually empties into the Pacific via the territories of Russia.

Many industrial enterprises with high volumes of waste water inthe two provinces are concentrated along the river.

Compared with the Pearl (Zhujiang) and Yangtze rivers in southern China, the Songhua River has been contaminated more seriously, according to a bulletin from the State Environmental Protection Administration on June 5.

A shortage of disposal facilities and outdated technologies were the main reasons that contributed to the deterioration of the water quality.

Soil erosion, caused by deforestation and shrinking grassland acreages, also brought organic matter into the river.

Russia has been attaching greater importance to the environmental protection in the Heilong River drainage area.

Protection for environment along the border has been a priority issue in the talks between the premiers of both countries.

After signing a memorandum on jointly monitoring the border river in February 2002, the two great neighboring countries began joint monitoring of the water quality of the Heilong and Wusuli rivers in May this year.

"A new Songhua River is in sight and it is expected to bubble with limpid water in the near future," said Li.

(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2003)