Even the official figures show China has a serious water pollution problem: in 2014, the government said 60% of of the country’s underground water is contaminated. But these statistics don’t tell the whole story. In many places, testing isn’t done regularly and there’s a big demand for local information, according to Charlene Ren, a Chinese clean water activist.
Ren has created the MyH2O’s Water Mapping Network which takes measurements from on-the-ground student teams and tags it to interactive maps. By recording water quality in thousands of wells and boreholes across China, she hopes to prompt action by water companies, foundations and, perhaps, by officialdom as well.
This is a great way to get a sense of what’s in their water and what they can do about it. We focus on these areas that are really far away and disconnected from a central systems where people are not really going in to help,” she says.
Ren hopes to emulate the success of air pollution campaigners who have spurred government action through citizen testing efforts. MyH2O works with teams of student environmentalists who use cheap color-change testing kits. The students then upload their results to the map—nitrate, magnesium, arsenic, ammonium, nitrogen, chromium, PH, and so on—along with photos and some commentary.
So far, 30 teams have submitted 2,000 sets of results, while another 50 teams have applied to take part in the program this summer. For example, one team worked in the remote and autonomous Xishuangbanna Dai prefecture, in Yunnan, in southern China.
Source: FactCoexist
