What were they thinking?

There goes another place to paddle...

Last week it was reported that tap water in Wuxi was undrinkable. Imagine turning on your shower and what came out was a putird, slimy, and green substance. That was what the residents of Wuxi discovered.

Wuxi sits by Lake Taihu, the fourth largest freshwater lake (2250sq km or 3.5 times the size of Singapore) in China. The algae bloom was caused by hundreds of factories (dye making, chemical, metal, sopa factory, wood, etc) discharging their industrial waste directly into the lake - untreated.

This pollution of the city's water supply caused all taps to be turned off, and a riotous stockpiling for bottled water.

Hopefully the authorities will ban discharge of untreated waste into the lake, and going forward take better care of their water resource.

photos by afp, reuters, and xiaoxinniang, respectively.