China Says 80% of Tested Wells Had Water Too Polluted to Drink

As Scott Walker and state Republicans abandon safeguarding Wisconsin's waters for polluters, a piece in the New York Times shows where we are heading: "Grim pollution in underground water."

Report Chris Buckley and Vanessa Piaoapril:
 

BEIJING — Although the Chinese have become used to hazy skies as a measure of environmental blight, statistics that received wide attention on Monday pointed to grim pollution below citizens’ feet, in underground water that is heavily used by farms, factories and households.

More than 80 percent of 2,103 wells for underground water tested across heavily populated plains of China were so badly contaminated by industrial and agricultural runoff that their water was unfit for drinking and home use, according to the numbers cited in a recent survey by the Ministry of Water Resources.

“From my point of view, this shows how water is the biggest environmental issue in China,” said Dabo Guan, a professor at the University of East Anglia in Britain who has been studying water pollution and scarcity in China.

“People in the cities, they see air pollution every day, so it creates huge pressure from the public. But in the cities, people don’t see how bad the water pollution is,” Professor Guan said. “They don’t have the same sense.”

The latest statistics are far from the first about the damage done to China’s underground water reservoirs and basins by runoff from farming and industry ...

This is where Wisconsin is heading unless we stop the Republicans.