In March 2018, SIP Lvse Jiangnan Public Environment Concerned Centre (hereinafter referred to as “PECC”) received a report from villagers near Changshu Xinyuan Weaving Co., Ltd., claiming that Changshu Xinyuan Weaving Co., Ltd., located in Fuwei Village, Changshu City, was discharging water into the river on the north side. The location of the reported company is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Geographical location map of the reported enterprise

On March 27th, 2018, PECC’s staffs arrived at the site to conduct environmental investigation and verification.

Under the leadership of the villagers,we found that there was a discharge pipe on the north side of the enterprise that was discharging brown sewage into the river, and the discharge volume was large. Obviously, the entire river had been dyed brown. The discharge outlet 1 is shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3.

Figure 2: Discharge outlet 1

Figure 3: The location of discharge outlet 1; The water of the river is dyed brown

Figure 4: The location of discharge outlet 2; The river water that is dyed brown

According to residents, the nearby enterprise has been discharging sewage into the river. The color of the sewage discharged during the day is not “red”. The color of the river water was even red a few days ago, and the smell of the river water was very unpleasant and pungent. The gate at the west end of the village is opened every night to discharge the sewage from the river channel. When villagers wake up in the morning, they can find that the water level of the sewage in the river channel has dropped, and the color has been diluted and faded. This phenomenon has not improved for more than ten years.

On March 27th, 2018, PECC submitted the “Environmental Research Report on Water Pollution in Fuwei, Changshu” to Changshu Environmental Protection Bureau.

On April 4th, 2018, PECC received a document reply from Changshu Environmental Protection Bureau. The specific reply is shown in the figure below.

Figure 5: The document reply from Changshu Environmental Protection Bureau

This project is Chang’an Charity - Environmental Protection Charitable Trust - Yangtze Qingliu Project.

Thanks to Chang’an Charity - Environmental Protection Charitable Trust for its financial support. The content and opinions in this article only represent the author’s personal views and have nothing to do with the position or policy of Chang’an Charity - Environmental Protection Charitable Trust.