Wu Guangqiang

    jw368@163.com

    SHENZHEN is my second home and will be my permanent home for the rest of my life. Since I moved here from Hangzhou, my hometown, in 1985, my attachment to the vibrant city has grown stronger every year.

    I take great pride in most things Shenzhen enjoys: the meteoric economic growth driven by constant reforms and innovation, an inclusive approach to different ideas, the business-friendly environment and relatively comfortable weather. As a bonus, Shenzhen is one of the nation’s least polluted cities. All my relatives and friends who have been here marvel at Shenzhen’s blue skies and white clouds.

    But Shenzhen has some negative aspects, too. If Shenzhen’s substandard sanitation and urban management levels are like flies in the ointment, then the horrendous pollution of Shenzhen Bay is like a thorn in Shenzhen’s side.

    Shenzhen Bay, also known as Deep Bay to Hongkongers, is the shallow bay that separates Shenzhen and Hong Kong. Its inner bay is listed as a wetland of great ecological value in the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat.

    For hundreds of years, anglers in Hong Kong and Shenzhen have lived off raising oysters in the bay. Mangrove trees along the coastline have been ideal natural habitats for migrant birds. But all this has been severely affected by Shenzhen’s massive reclamation work and daily discharge of untreated wastewater directly into the bay.

    I have witnessed the once-clear-and-vast bay gradually diminish and become contaminated.

    When I arrived in Shekou, Shenzhen’s earliest industrial zone, I could see seawater almost everywhere. Pushing open the window of my room in the morning, I was greeted by the bay’s beauty. When I bought my first home in 1989, my wife was unhappy with the out-of-the-way location, but a five-minute walk took us to the seaside where there were hardly any other buildings except a few newly developed apartment blocks.

    Now, however, the coastline has been pushed outward by at least 10 km. More than tens of thousands of hectares of land have been reclaimed in order to build tens of hundreds of high-rising buildings. In a sense, Shenzhen’s development would have been impossible without the bay’s selfless sacrifice during the past 30 years, during which 25 square km of water area, 27 percent the total, has been filled for construction purposes. The wetland area has shrunk by a half. As a result, a host of problems have arisen: serious sedimentation, an elevated seabed, severe pollution, destruction of natural habitats and, the worst of all, the disappearance of the marine ecosystem’s self-purification ability.

    If the diminishing size of the bay is a price we have to pay for the neck-breaking development of the city, then the prolonged, licentious polluting of the bay is an unpardonable mistake.

    Shenzhen Bay Park is my favorable place for cycling and walking. The sunshine, the breeze, the green areas and people’s smiles, all these make me happy. But I can enjoy them only when the bay is at high tide. Whenever it is at low tide, visitors have to cover their noses against the stench of sewage. Black and filthy runoff keeps pouring from sewage pipes into the bay.

    According to a recent report, 130,000 tons of wastewater is dumped into the bay daily, meaning the annual discharge hits a staggering 47 million tons. It’s more destruction than pollution!

    Shenzhen’s water authority has revealed that of the 47 drainage exits along the bay, 16 are discharging untreated sewage all year round. The wastewater has various sources: residential areas, markets, urban villages and even schools.

    There are multiple causes for the pollution, the main one being the absence of a well-designed urban plan. Few early projects came with waste disposal systems.

    In my opinion, however, Shenzhen government’s attitude is the key root of the problem. With Shenzhen’s economic strength and engineering skills, terminating the pollution should not be that difficult.

    If we can create a metropolis in 30 years, why can’t we save our bay in 10 years? Experts have warned that the bay will disappear unless the deterioration stops.

    (The author is an English tutor and freelance writer.)