The Ministry of Health admitted yesterday that the situation of drinking water safety in China was "very serious" after the news that "couples who can drink water most do not drink tap water for 20 years" triggered a heated debate.

Yesterday, at the regular press conference of the Ministry of Health, when asked about the recent dispute about the water quality in Beijing, Deng Haihua, the spokesman of the Ministry of Health and deputy director of the General Office of the Ministry of Health, said that he believed Beijing's statement that "the water quality meets the detection requirements of 106 indicators in the latest national standards", but also admitted that "the current and future situation of our drinking water safety is still very serious".

People close to the decision-making level in the field of health commented on the First Business Daily that China's drinking water safety standards are very high at present, which are synchronized with the European Union, but difficult to implement; Even the detection ability of 106 indicators is generally only available in provincial capital cities, cities with separate planning and provincial monitoring stations.

Previously, a report of the National Development and Reform Commission and the "12th Five-Year Plan" of the National Rural Drinking Water Safety Project revealed that of the 460 million people who enjoy public water supply services in China, 98 million people have unsafe drinking water quality, and 298 million rural people and 114000 rural schools have not yet solved the problem of drinking water safety.

No one has implemented the EU standards?

Earlier, media reports said that Zhao Feihong, the head of the Health Drinking Water Professional Committee of the Beijing Health Protection Association, and her husband, Li Fuxing, who worked in the Drinking Water Industry Committee of the National Development and Reform Commission's Public Nutrition and Development Center, recently detected that the nitrate (in nitrogen) index in tap water (mainly from garbage, filtrate and feces) had reached more than 9 milligrams per liter (9.0mg/L), close to the 10mg/L specified by the national standard, Considering that the water quality in Beijing is getting worse, this "Beijing's best drinking family" has not drunk tap water for 20 years.

In response, Beijing Municipal Water Group said that Beijing's drinking water and water sources are the best in China, and the water supplied by the group meets 106 national standards and is safe.

After that, Zhao Feihong told the media that "tap water is in line with the national standard, and you can drink it"; Tap water is a kind of safe water, but not a kind of healthy water, which is not very good for health.

At the press conference of the Ministry of Health yesterday, in response to the media's questions about the above dispute, Deng Haihua said that he believed the statement of a spokesman from the relevant authorities in Beijing that the water quality of Beijing tap water met the test requirements of 106 indicators in the latest national standard.

Deng Haihua also said that the Hygienic Standard for Drinking Water, which was revised under the leadership of the Ministry of Health, was in line with the international standards and had been fully implemented since July 1, 2012. The Ministry of Health monitored 29825 drinking water monitoring points last year, covering all municipalities directly under the Central Government, provincial capital cities, 91.5% of prefecture-level cities, 46.7% of counties and county-level cities. At present, more than 60000 water samples have been tested, and the results are being counted and will be released to the public in time.

"At present, the standard of drinking water (in China) is synchronized with that of the European Union," a person close to the decision-making level in the field of health told this newspaper yesterday, "but there are standards that are useless and no one has implemented them. Now the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development is responsible for water plants, the Ministry of Water Resources is responsible for rural water supply, and the Ministry of Health is responsible for the formulation and monitoring of standards. What should we do if the water quality fails to meet the standards? But we still have to let people drink water."

Drinking water safety puzzles hundreds of millions of people

The helplessness of these people reflects the reality of drinking water safety in China.

On June 27, 2012, the 27th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress asked the State Council about the work of ensuring drinking water safety. According to the Report of the State Council on the Work of Ensuring Drinking Water Safety (hereinafter referred to as the Report) made by Du Ying, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, quoted by Ren Maodong, "among the 460 million people serving public water, 98 million people have unsafe water quality, and about 31 million of the 62 million people directly supplied by urban construction do not drink up to the standard."

Although this paragraph did not appear in the full text of the Report published on the website of the National People's Congress, the Report still disclosed many existing problems and challenges. For example, about 14% of the water sources in the country are substandard, and about 3.57 billion cubic meters of centralized drinking water sources in cities above prefecture level are substandard, accounting for 11.4% of the total water supply.

The situation of drinking water safety in rural areas is more severe

On March 21, 2012, the State Council adopted the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" for the National Rural Drinking Water Safety Project, which proposed that during the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, on the basis of continuing to consolidate the achievements of the projects already built, we should further accelerate the pace of construction, comprehensively solve the drinking water safety problem of 298 million rural people and 114000 rural schools, and increase the proportion of the national rural centralized water supply population to about 80%. During the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, this proportion reached 58%.

"Urban water supply is mainly caused by pipe pollution. In the past, iron pipes were used, and some of them were rusted and broken, which would affect the quality of the end water. Although plastic pipes were used in the new community, the impact of algal toxins on drinking water should also be prevented. Rural areas are mainly caused by biological pollution." Shang Qi, deputy director and researcher of the Institute of Environmental and Health-related Product Safety of the China Center for Disease Control, told this newspaper.

The threats to drinking water safety listed in the Report include prominent eutrophication problems in lakes, frequent occurrence of cyanobacteria blooms, many potential safety hazards in river-type water sources, and high vulnerability to sudden water pollution incidents. A large number of industrial projects are located along the banks of rivers, and many tailings ponds are located at the upstream of drinking water sources. Large rivers and surrounding mobile sources have a high pollution risk, which directly threatens the safety of drinking water.

"At present, there are many factors threatening the safety of water quality, and different regions have different problems. There are industrial pollution in places with developed industries, such as the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. There is no safety problem in places with water shortage, such as the water in the water cellar in the northwest. Some rural areas also have the problem of overlapping industrial pollution and biological pollution." Shang Qi said.

According to the analysis of the Report, the current water supply quality is not up to the standard. The most prominent reason is that the water plant facilities are old. More than 95% of the public water supply plants in the country were built before the issuance of the new drinking water sanitation standard on July 1, 2012, and the quality indicators of the factory water are 35 indicators specified in the old standard issued in 1985. Secondly, the aging, leakage and secondary pollution of the pipe network are serious. According to statistics, at present, the leakage rate of more than half of the urban water supply networks in the country is higher than the value specified in the national standard, and the annual leakage water volume is up to 6 billion cubic meters, causing the water quality to decline in the process of transmission.

Inadequate monitoring capacity below prefectural level

"At present, including for a period of time to come, our drinking water safety situation is still very serious. In terms of sanitation, our drinking water monitoring capacity is not very strong, and the safeguards in all aspects are not in place, and the supervision and monitoring efforts need to be further strengthened." Deng Haihua said.

At present, the Ministry of Health carries out routine monitoring nationwide every year, and the results are published in the China Health Statistics Yearbook. According to the 2010 China Health Statistical Yearbook, the regular health supervision and monitoring of drinking water in 2009 showed that the qualified rate of centralized water supply source was 85.9%, the qualified rate of factory water was 86.3%, and the qualified rate of terminal water was 87.3%. The qualified rate of municipal water supply is 91.2%, the qualified rate of factory water is 95%, and the qualified rate of terminal water is 92.6%. The qualified rate of township water source is 81.5%, the qualified rate of factory water is 79.8%, and the qualified rate of terminal water is 76.5%. The qualified rate of self-built water source is 82.7%, the qualified rate of factory water is 81.2%, and the qualified rate of terminal water is 80.1%. The qualified rate of secondary water supply source is 89.4%, the qualified rate of factory water is 90.3%, and the qualified rate of terminal water is 90.8%.

There are spot checks at the local level. "There are more than two spot checks and monitoring in Beijing every year, which are completed by the Institute of Health Supervision and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The business department of the water company should monitor the water quality in real time," a local CDC official told the newspaper.

However, the monitoring capacity of small and medium-sized cities, towns and rural areas is still seriously insufficient. Zhang Lijun, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, admitted in the above-mentioned special inquiry of the National People's Congress in June 2012 that due to the lack of monitoring capacity, the information about water sources below the county level, including urban water sources, has hardly been made public. Currently, those with 106 indicators monitoring capabilities are mainly concentrated in provincial capital cities, cities with separate planning and provincial monitoring stations; Basically, prefecture-level cities have the ability to routinely monitor 29 indicators, and other indicators require sample monitoring.

In the face of this reality, the country's monitoring and governance resources will be mainly invested in ensuring basic drinking water safety.

"At present, whether the drinking water meets the standard or fails to meet the standard, it is still limited to safety issues, and there is no concept of healthy drinking water," said an industry expert.