This Day, That Year

Item from Feb 22, 1984, in China Daily: The celebrated floating restaurants will disappear from Guangzhou by July to give way to a cleaner Pearl River.

The boat restaurants are being abolished by the local government. It says the filth discharged from the boats is seriously contaminating the Pearl River. ...

Many cities along the Pearl River have witnessed rapid economic growth due to the booming manufacturing sector. However, water pollution has become a major issue.

Efforts to control pollution have continued vigorously in the past few years, resulting in major improvements.

For example, Dongguan in Guangdong province, has been promoting green development as a top priority, helping it change its image from a manufacturing center to an eco-friendly city.

As of the end of 2015, Dongguan had raised its forest coverage to 37 percent and urban greening rate to 45 percent. It also has 19 forest parks, 14 wetland parks, six nature reserves, 1,223 parks and a 956-kilometer greenway.

The city has shut down more than 800 workshops, and imposed restrictions on heavily polluting industries such as printing, tanning and papermaking. It has also developed an "eco-compensation" framework and has budgeted 2 billion yuan ($290 million) to shut down polluting companies.

In Zhuhai, also in Guangdong province, authorities are cooperating with other Pearl River Delta cities to combat marine pollution.

The initiative followed the discovery of large-scale dumping in the river by ships.