A tributary of China’s Yellow River has been polluted by an oil spill, state-run media reported yesterday, in the latest environmental accident to threaten the nation’s drinking water.
About 1,000 tonnes of oil sludge has contaminated farmland and the Luohe River in Shaanxi Province after a recycling pool at a sewage treatment plant collapsed on March 28, the China Daily said.
More than 2,000 people have been scrambling to clean up the mess and eight containment belts have been set up downstream from the spill, the English-language newspaper said.
“At present, the sludge in the river has been effectively controlled and we will make efforts to clean up the contamination in the farmland and valley,” local government official Wang Hongli was quoted as saying.
Reporters’ calls to the local environmental protection bureau went unanswered.
More than 30 years of unbridled economic growth have left most of China’s lakes and rivers heavily polluted, while the nation’s urban dwellers also face some of the world’s worst air pollution.
As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city’s parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45°C and prompting thousands of schools to suspend in-person classes. Even before the chaos and conflict unleashed by the military’s 2021 coup, Myanmar’s creaky and outdated electricity grid struggled to keep fans whirling and air conditioners humming during the hot season. Now, infrastructure attacks and dwindling offshore gas reserves mean those who cannot afford expensive diesel
Does Argentine President Javier Milei communicate with a ghost dog whose death he refuses to accept? Forced to respond to questions about his mental health, the president’s office has lashed out at “disrespectful” speculation. Twice this week, presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni was asked about Milei’s English Mastiff, Conan, said to have died seven years ago. Milei, 53, had Conan cloned, and today is believed to own four copies he refers to as “four-legged children.” Or is it five? In an interview with CNN this month, Milei referred to his five dogs, whose faces and names he had engraved on the presidential baton. Conan,
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