Hongze Lake's surface turns black: ten thousand acres of fish and crabs wiped out, large numbers of dead fish wash up on the embankments

Shengli Village, Linhuai Town, Sihong County, Suqian City. Several villagers reported to the program that they are hairy crab farmers by Hongze Lake, living by the lake and engaged in aquaculture. But recently, the crabs, fish and shrimp in the whole village's 13,000 mu of crab ponds died almost completely overnight, on the verge of total loss. At the same time they discovered that large amounts of black sewage were continuously pouring into Hongze Lake……

In summer and autumn, crabs and other aquatic products are about to hit the market in large quantities. This should be the happiest season of the year for farmers, but on August 26, when the reporter arrived at Shengli Village, Linhuai Town, Sihong County, they found an atmosphere of utter lifelessness.

Two kilometers offshore, in a deep-water area, there were large numbers of dead fish, and the air had a strong, pungent smell.

On the fishing boat heading to Shengli Village, dead fish could be seen floating on the lake surface from time to time, and the pungent smell grew stronger.

Landing on the island and going ashore, dozens of farmers gathered by the lake, their faces full of worry.

Farmer Wang Hengcun told the reporter that the whole village is currently facing the predicament of total loss.

In the crab pond of farmer Wang Hengcun's home, villagers were swinging nets to salvage from the bottom of the water, and dead crabs filled the bow of the boat. These crabs could originally have been on the market by the Mid-Autumn Festival……

In the crab pond, the reporter saw that some live crabs were still hanging on the enclosure nets.

Wang Hengcun told the reporter that these surviving crabs would not last much longer either.

Wang Hengcun said that their family's 150 mu of crab ponds had been stocked with 1,500 jin of crab seedlings in total, with costs of 500,000 yuan invested. Their family alone lost 600,000 to 700,000 yuan this time. As for the total loss across the village's 13,000 mu of crab ponds, the villagers did not dare to calculate that figure.

The village elders told the reporter that Shengli Village in Linhuai Town is a small island in Hongze Lake, with 260 households in total, of which 160 are crab farming households.

For decades, raising and selling crabs has been the village's main source of income. Because of the abundant rain this year, the hairy crabs all grew better than in previous years.

Why were crabs that were growing so well on the verge of total loss?

Local villagers told the reporter that two days earlier, large amounts of sewage with a strong pungent smell had suddenly flowed into this area of Hongze Lake, causing almost all of the village's fish and crabs to die overnight.

Local fishermen told the reporter that after the incident, the Sihong County Environmental Protection Bureau and several other departments also came to inspect the site, and through testing had strictly banned villagers from drinking the surrounding lake water.

How could the Hongze Lake water that Shengli Village villagers had used for farming and for drinking and eating for decades suddenly turn into sewage? A Secretary Wang of Linhuai Town told the reporter that after a preliminary investigation by multiple departments, it may have been due to flood discharge a few days earlier upstream within Anhui.

Where exactly did the sewage come from?

Who should bear the losses of the 160 farming households at Hongze Lake?

After the incident, the fishermen of Shengli Village once traveled upstream against the current. Because the open sluice gates made the water flow rapid, boats could not proceed.

Starting from the Hongze Lake waters at Shengli Village, the reporter followed the river channel, passing over 60 km by land and water, and arrived within the territory of Si County, Anhui Province. The smell and color of the water here were extremely similar to the situation at Shengli Village.

The water in the Xin Sui River in Si County, Anhui, was relatively dark. Standing in the middle of the bridge, the same pungent smell rushed at the face, and because the water level had dropped after the sluice gates were opened, large numbers of dead fish in the river gradually washed up onto the embankments.

Could this be the source of the sewage?

The reporter called the staff of the river chief's office of Sicheng Town, Si County, Anhui. The other party said that the sewage currently seen was merely passing through. Some time earlier, without any rain, the Si County section of the Xin Sui River had already exceeded the warning water level, and they could only continue discharging the water coming from upstream further downstream. “There is almost no aquaculture here; all aquaculture was shut down a year ago. We also have no industrial discharge here, we have no industry.”

After sampling and bottling water from the Si County section of the Xin Sui River, the reporter continued upstream. At Huigou Town, Lingbi County, Anhui Province, about 120 km from Shengli Village, the reporter found a Huigoucha sluice. Of its 7 gates, 3 were discharging water, and by visual estimate the water level difference between upstream and downstream at the gates reached about five meters. Layers of white foam rose on the river surface, the entire river section was ink-colored, and a strong pungent smell could be smelled on site.

Did Shengli Village's sewage flow downstream from here?

The reporter contacted by phone the staff of the county-level river chief's office for the Sui River in Lingbi County, Anhui Province.

The staff of the county-level river chief's office for the main stream of the Sui River in Lingbi County, Anhui, said that no industrial enterprise had ever been found discharging sewage upstream or downstream of the Lingbi section of the Old Sui River, and that water quality here had always been very good in the past, with no recent data showing that the Sui River's water quality had deteriorated.

Local villagers told the reporter that starting from the heavy rain 10 days earlier, the water level rose and upstream continuously discharged floodwater. The originally clear water here began to turn black and stink, and the fish in the river almost all died as a result.

The Huigou Town section of the Old Sui River is formed by the convergence of multiple tributaries, with even more branch rivers upstream, splitting into three directions: Anhui, Henan, and Xuzhou. Where exactly the pollution source is was difficult to determine for the time being.

After collecting and bottling water from the Huigou Town section of the Old Sui River, the reporter immediately rushed to the Sihong County Environmental Protection Bureau and handed two bottles of sampled water from within Anhui to quality inspection staff for analysis and comparison.