VZCZCXRO8728
RR RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB
DE RUEHGZ #1232/01 1950706
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 140706Z JUL 06
FM AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4577
INFO RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 021232 
 
SIPDIS 
 
PACOM FOR FPA 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV ECON PGOV SOCI CH
SUBJECT: The River of Life?: Mass Swimathon in Guangzhou's 
Pearl River 
 
REF: A) Guangzhou 21212; B) Guangzhou 21192; C) Guangzhou 93 
 
(U) This message is sensitive but unclassified.  Please 
handle accordingly. 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: In a public display that harks back to the 
Mao era, 3,500 Guangdong officials and local residents swam 
across the Pearl River to promote environmental clean-up 
efforts.  Though Guangzhou is spending vast sums of money on 
waste-water treatment plants, and is clamping down on highly 
polluting factories, China's own pollution index rates the 
water as unsafe for swimming.  In a last-minute attempt to 
clean up the water, cities upstream were ordered to stop 
dumping sewage into the river prior to the event.  The event 
was hailed by the Chinese press as a success, while the Hong 
Kong press noted the absurdity of a mass swim in a river 
that is harmful to humans. 
 
Whose Idea Was This? 
-------------------- 
 
¶2. (U) The Pearl River swimathon was first proposed by Li 
Changchun, former Guangdong party secretary and now, as 
Standing Committee member of the Politburo, one of China's 
most influential leaders.  In 2001, while he was still in 
Guangdong, Li stated his hope that the Pearl River would be 
clean enough for swimming within five years.  Li reportedly 
continued to follow up on the idea after he left Guangdong, 
asking local officials about the swim during their visits to 
Beijing.  In 2002, then-Guangzhou party leader Huang Huahua 
-- now Guangdong governor -- stated that the river would be 
clean enough for swimming in 2005.  It was former Guangzhou 
party leader Lin Shusen -- recently promoted to acting 
governor of Guizhou -- who finally organized the swim.  He 
was also the first to jump in the water during a trial run a 
few days before the event. 
 
¶3. (U) Large-scale public swims first became popular in 
China during the leadership of Mao Zedong, who swam in the 
Pearl River several times in the 1950s and made a much- 
publicized crossing of the Yangzi River in 1966.  Between 
1967 and 1977, six more Yangzi River swims were organized to 
honor Mao, peaking with a 16,000-person swimathon in 1977. 
Since then, however, the practice had fallen to the wayside, 
and no large-scale swims have taken place. 
 
(Don't) Take Me to the River 
---------------------------- 
 
¶4. (U) Approximately 3,500 people, mostly employees of 
government agencies or state-owned companies, participated 
in the July 13 swimathon.  The highest ranking officials 
were Guangdong Governor Huang Huahua, Guangzhou Mayor Zhang 
Guangning, and four Guangzhou vice mayors.  Other citizens, 
including neighborhood groups and students of all ages, 
participated after being vetted by authorities.  Most wore 
Speedo-style suits, swim caps, and goggles and swam with the 
assistance of brightly colored flotation devices strapped to 
their limbs.  Originally, press reports said 10,000 people 
would participate, but in the days leading up the event the 
number was scaled down.  This owes in part to the decision 
to make participation by some local universities voluntary 
instead of required. 
 
Bridge Over Troubled Water 
-------------------------- 
 
¶5. (U) The river banks, viewing areas, and bridges near the 
event were adorned with slogan-bearing banners trumpeting 
patriotism and the "mother river."  Several banners had even 
been mounted on large floating buoys and were pulled along 
by groups of swimmers during their crossings.  The local 
press reported that twenty scuba divers swam underwater 
throughout the event.  Police roped off the area where the 
swimmers entered and exited the river, and access was 
closely monitored.  A sizable force of boats patrolled the 
river, both to assist in case of emergency and to remove any 
"suspended matter" from the water.  To ensure that the river 
was as clean as possible, Guangzhou, along with the upriver 
cities of Foshan and Qingyuan, were required to stop dumping 
sewage into the river in the days leading up to the event. 
Numerous boats were tasked during the week before the event 
to lift large debris from the river. 
 
GUANGZHOU 00021232  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
River Deep, Pollution Level High 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) Pollution in the Pearl River is a combination of 
sewage and industrial waste such as ammonia nitrogen and 
phosphorus.  According to press reports, approximately 30 
percent of sewage in Guangzhou is untreated.  Nevertheless, 
the city has made major efforts to clean up the river in 
recent years: it has spent almost USD one billion to build 
new sewage networks and wastewater treatment plants and has 
pledged to spend more than USD two billion more.  It has 
also ordered most of the highly polluting factories to leave 
-- though many have relocated to northern Guangdong, along 
waterways that feed into the Pearl River (see reftels A and 
B).  Indeed, in December 2005, a smelting factory in 
northern Guangdong discharged 1,000 tons of cadmium-carrying 
waste into the river during facility maintenance, some of 
which made its way through Guangzhou (see reftel C). 
 
¶7. (U) Guangzhou papers have reported in the past that the 
Pearl River around Guangzhou was "95 percent heavily 
polluted" and "5 percent lightly polluted".  According to 
China's national water quality index, in which "1" is clean 
and "5" is highly polluted, swimming water must meet grade 
"3".  Guangzhou's Pearl River usually ranges between "4" and 
"5".  However, a vice mayor insisted that emergency clean-up 
efforts in the two weeks prior to the swimathon lowered the 
water quality level to "3". 
 
Pearl River Delta Blues 
----------------------- 
 
¶8. (U) Local press provided extensive coverage of the swim, 
including a live broadcast during the actual event.  Local 
coverage was overwhelmingly positive, with photos and 
quotations from triumphant swimmers.  One local paper, 
however, cited a local dermatologist who warned people with 
open wounds to avoid participating.  The Hong Kong press 
clearly relished the opportunity to ridicule the event, with 
the South China Morning Post pairing photos of filthy 
waterways with jubilant swimmers.  It also reported on a 
prominent local businesswoman who tested the waters herself 
before the swim and said she saw floating household waste 
and felt sticky when she got out.  She later came down with 
diarrhea and an eye infection.  Every swimmer we spoke to 
after the event was unabashedly positive about the state of 
the river.  One local police officer told us "the water is 
perfect now." 
 
Comment: Stink or Swim? 
----------------------- 
 
¶9. (SBU) This event was an interesting throwback to an 
earlier era.  If the idea had not originated with a powerful 
figure such as Li Changchun, it seems doubtful it would have 
ever made it past the drawing board.  Nevertheless, 
Guangzhou has made real efforts to clean up the river and 
has had some success -- Governor Huang was quoted as saying 
the water was "no longer thick and smelly."  And if the 
ultimate goal of the swimathon was to raise the 
environmental awareness of Guangzhou citizens, with the aim 
of protecting the city's primary water source, it was a 
resounding success. 
 
MARTIN