Persistent organic pollutants contaminate Chinese water resources: overview of the current status, challenges and European strategies

• DOI: 10.1007/s12665-015-4448-x
• Publication Date: 2015-05-05T11:30:56Z
• Authors: Erik Nixdorf; Cui Chen; Yuanyuan Sun; Olaf Kolditz
• Keywords: 13. Climate action; 11. Sustainability; 0401 agriculture, forestry, and fisheries; 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences; 6. Clean water; 12. Responsible consumption

In order to get a better overview of the national scale of POP-related water pollution in China, the EU-China Environmental Sustainability Programme of the European Union and the international Helmholtz network, RCEIS, are supporting the enormous task of compiling data on existing individual contaminant investigations of rivers, lakes and aquifers in China. The differences regarding POP contamination in the water body status evaluation schemes of China and the EU become evident as the authors point out a selection of European case studies of POP-contaminated water resource assessments and successful remediation strategies. An ongoing cooperation project between China and the EU is introduced to show exemplarily that the adoption of existing strategies will offer huge potential opportunities for China to manage its water quality challenges and to enhance the existing scientific cooperation between China and the EU.