Winny Wang, Shanghai Daily

May 1, 2007

China’s water resource regulator has diverted 190-million cubic meters of water from the Yangtze River into algae-polluted Taihu Lake to improve its water quality and allow a clean water supply to resume to the residents of Wuxi, Oriental Morning Post reported today.The water level in the lake has been raised to more than three meters deep and experts said the higher level will lower the lake’s temperature and stop algae breeding, the report said.

A thunder storm is expected to hit Wuxi, in Shanghai’s neighboring Jiangsu Province, in two days. “We will take advantage of the weather to capture the rain and use it to further dilute the water in the lake,” a weather forecaster in the Jiangsu Meteorological Bureau told the Shanghai-based newspaper yesterday.

The algae bloom in Taihu formed because water levels are at their lowest in 50 years and the temperature is the highest in 25 years, leading to excess nutrients, according to experts.

Lu Jianjian, a professor in East China Normal University, said if the algae spreads to the eastern part of Taihu, Shanghai’s water supply will be threatened.

Wuxi residents have been suffered from contaminated tap water from Taihu since Tuesday, which sparked panic buying of bottled water.

The city is transporting huge amounts of drinking water from nearby cities to meet the demand.

Two Shanghai supermarkets, Lianhua and Carrefour, have transferred almost 100,000 boxes of bottled water to the city.