The Sea Grant Model in China

Vicky Harris, UW Sea Grant Advisory Services water quality specialist, traveled to China in May to conduct several water resource management seminars for faculty and students of the Institute for Environmental Sciences at Beijing Normal University. Harris traveled with her husband, Dr. H.J. (Bud) Harris, former director of UW-Green Bay's Natural and Applied Sciences Program, which has an exchange program with the Chinese institute.

One seminar focused on UW Sea Grant's research and outreach programs. The Chinese institute is studying China's severe problems with water quality and quantity, Ms. Harris said. "They’ve been funded to develop water cycle models and a restoration plan for the Yellow River Basin, and they want to communicate their results to governmental officials and to the Chinese public," she said. "So they're interested in the model that Sea Grant uses, of applying research, training, and outreach to help solve environmental problems."

Other seminar topics included Remedial Action Plans for Great Lakes Areas of Concern, ecological risk assessment, and remediation of Fox River sediments. Faculty and students are also interested in studying how natural resources are managed in the U.S. and in making contacts with U.S. researchers in resource management fields, Harris said.  "We took numerous Sea Grant and other publications with us and have sent more since our return," she said.

During her trip, Harris encountered abundant evidence of China's severe environmental problems. "After a day of walking through any of the larger cities like Beijing, Chongqing, Wuhan, and Xian," she said, "you can feel the air pollution in your lungs, and your face becomes sooty and smudged."

Escaping the city, she said, was no escape from pollution. The Harrises traveled by boat along the Yangtze River and found visible air pollution extending far into the mountains and rural valleys.  "And you notice the obvious water contamination right away," she said. The silt load of the Yangtze exceeds 1 to 2 billion metric tons per year. "That's hyper sediment loading," she said.

Huge amounts of sediment come from eroding agricultural land and deforested hillsides, Harris said. "The soil often loses its ability to produce crops and forests, and then the fields have no protection from wind and rain," she said. "And a long-standing drought has made things even worse. The northwestern region is rapidly becoming a desert."

Arriving in the large industrial city of Chongqing, Harris was taken aback by what she saw. "It was a hugely depressing place," she said. "The air there was so foggy and polluted, you could hardly see two blocks ahead of you. Every factory was spewing the worst smoke you can imagine," she said. "Large plumes of colored, foamy chemicals were running out the back doors of factories, down ditches, and directly into the river. You could see mats of foam floating for miles downstream." 

China’s environmental problems are all interrelated, Harris said, with the country’s huge population at their root.  The basic needs of food and shelter for nearly 1.3 billion people require enormous resources. And on top of that, "their appetite for consumption is growing rapidly," Harris said. "The Chinese are eager for economic prosperity, and they’re trying to develop economically as fast as they can. Unfortunately, many officials believe that widespread enforcement of existing environmental regulations will mean economic ruin for most factories and towns," she said. "What they could learn from our experience is that the costs of environmental damage and cleanup are much greater than pollution prevention."

-- John Karl

Last updated 24 October 2000 by Karl
All contents copyright 2000 University of Wisconsin Sea Grant Institute

http://www.seagrant.wisc.edu/Communications/news/LDstories/2000/SGinChina.html