A century of abuse
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11/01/2002
Shanghai's rapid expansion over the past century was considered the cause of Suzhou Creek's demise.In the first decade of the 20th Century, the creek was quite clean, and the city built a waterworks by the creek. But starting in the 1920s, continuous pollution led to a deterioration of the creek, and the waterworks was forced to move away, shifting to the Huangpu River. From the 1950s, the pollution became even heavier. More and more industries poured untreated waste into the waterway and, as the city's population swelled, too many people began using the creek as a place to dump their domestic trash and sewage. Statistics show that by 1998, before the city launched the first phase of its rehabilitation project, some 3 million tons of waste water were being emptied into the creek every day. Under this pollution avalanche, fish and plant life died - and the water gradually turned black. Although the Huangpu River was also quite filthy, compared with Suzhou Creek it was virgin spring water. Near Waibaidu Bridge, where the two waterways meet, an observer could see the stark contrast between the black waters of Suzhou Creek and the yellowish flow of the Huangpu.
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