The two heavy rainstorms in late June and early July brought a large amount of trash to Chun’an’s Qiandao Lake. Just as the immense pressure from this debris had not yet subsided, the recent Typhoon Soudelor sounded yet another garbage alarm for the lake.
So far, trash flowing from Huangshan and She County in upstream Anhui continues to batter Qiandao Lake.
In response, local environmental protection departments are on high alert, with the main labor forces of lakeside towns and villages fully mobilized to confront the issue head-on.
Eyewitness Accounts Along the Shore:
Trash Piles Up Heavily in the Mountain Bends Upstream of Qiandao Lake
Traveling about 20 kilometers along the Qi-Fen Line from Qiandao Lake Town to Tongziwu. This is a lakeside highway, which many cycling enthusiasts describe as “with very low gradient, moderate difficulty, and extremely high scenic beauty.”
After about 10 minutes of driving, before even reaching the Xiaojinshan Bridge, one can spot scattered anglers by the shore. “It’s been like this recently—the trash is abundant, and at several previous fishing spots, it's hard to cast lines and keep the floats upright,” said one angler. To his right along the shore lies an area of about 100 square meters covered in trash, mainly branches, leaves, and dead grass, mixed with rags, foam boxes, and drink bottles. Because the water flow is gentle, the trash just floats without moving further.
Going further ahead for about 10 kilometers to a mountain bend near Tongziwu. The trash here isn’t concentrated but almost covers the entire boundary between the water surface and the mountain—within a 30-centimeter strip along the waterline, it’s all trash. Unlike the larger pieces seen on the open lake, these are mostly “small-sized” trash, primarily in the form of strip-like floating objects. Nearby villagers confirmed that it wasn’t like this before—only in the past half month. “It’s mostly in sheltered mountain bends; there’s always a bit here and there.”
Firsthand Experience on the Water:
Boats Can't Enter Where Trash Is the Thickest
With the help of local fishermen, reporters recently set off by boat from near Xiaojinshan and headed upstream against the current to Jiekou Village in Jiekou Town, Anhui.
The view along the way was shocking.
●When a outboard-powered boat (reporter’s note: a small wooden boat driven by a small diesel engine) reached the waters of Jiukeng Township, Chun’an County (reporter’s note: the entry point where upstream waters flow into Qiandao Lake), large patches of trash began to appear:
Tree trunks and branches two to three meters long, leaves of unidentifiable species, all kinds of plastic bags and foam, including discarded thermoses, light bulbs, cardboard boxes, and other household waste—all gathered together as pushed by the ripples. From a distance, the water looked as if it were divided into multiple channels by trash—smooth areas were the river, while the uneven parts resembled land.
This scene extended continuously upstream, and the further up one went, the more trash there was.
●Upon reaching the waters near Jiekou Town in Anhui, although the types of trash were not much different from before, the quantity was astonishing:
A river surface about 100 meters wide was nearly completely covered in trash. Although this is an upstream tributary of Qiandao Lake, the massive amount of trash slowed the water current significantly and filled the air with a stench.
“Is there a lot of trash on the surface? There’s even more underwater!” Yu Ping (a pseudonym), a villager from Qianshan Village in Jiekou Town, told the reporter. What’s visible above the water is just the “peak” of the trash mountain—the bulk of it is hidden beneath the surface. “If you go further upstream, you can’t sail anymore; the motor will burn out if it gets wrapped in trash,” Yu Ping said. If you stop the boat for just five minutes, the trash at the bow could support someone standing on it—two or three people could even walk on it without issue. Going further upstream becomes even more difficult, as the river narrows and the density of trash increases.
Tracing the Cause:
Where Is All This Excessive Trash Coming From?
Where does the excessive amount of trash near Jiekou Town in She County, Anhui come from? “Whether it’s Tunxi (i.e., Huangshan City) or She County here, almost all rivers in the area eventually converge here. Due to the torrential rains during the flood season, the trash from the entire watershed gets concentrated here in a short time,” said a village official from Jiekou Village in Jiekou Town.
Some also believe that the large amount of trash on the river surface is related to the geographical environment. “This river originally flows in a southwesterly direction, but just before entering Zhejiang territory, it turns northeastward, making a turn of at least 120 degrees. The water flow slows down sharply, making it easier for trash to accumulate in the water.”
Opening a map, the reporter found that the riverways in Anhui and Zhejiang indeed make a sharp bend near Jiekou, forming a “V” shape with a very narrow opening—this indeed objectively creates conditions for trash to accumulate.
But apart from these natural and objective factors, are there any others? The above explanations only apply to dead branches and leaves—where does all that household waste come from?
“Household waste is basically just dumped into the river because it’s convenient,” said a resident. Jiekou Village currently has about 1,600 households, most of which are built facing the water and backed by mountains. Although the village once spent nearly 1 million yuan to build a sewage treatment pipeline network, changing the long-standing hygiene habits of the residents is not easy to achieve in a short period.
Mobilization Across the County:
A 40-Kilometer Trash Battle on the Water
Waters from Huangshan, She County, and other areas in Anhui converge at Jiekou, then flow downstream through Qiukou and Jinfeng in Chun’an, entering Qiandao Lake via Xiaojinshan—water from Anhui accounts for 60% of the total inflow into Qiandao Lake.
The trash carried by these water bodies has drawn high attention from officials in Chun'an. "Forty kilometers is both a frontline and a defensive bottom line," said a local official who has been closely monitoring the trash invasion into Qiandao Lake.
"It’s no exaggeration to say the whole county has been mobilized. No matter what methods we use, we must eliminate the trash within those 40 kilometers," said a relevant official from the Chun’an County Environmental Protection Bureau.
The 40 kilometers refer to the river distance from Jiukou at the Zhejiang-Anhui border to the lake inlet at Xiaojingshan. This distance is sensitive because beyond Xiaojingshan lies the central area of Qiandao Lake, known as the "Three Thousand West Lakes."
Giant salvage vessels conduct initial hauls — small motorboats handle scattered debris — and riverside towns and villages are responsible for waste that washes ashore. "From 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. every day, we’ve been patrolling back and forth within these 40 kilometers," said a worker on a large trash salvage vessel. There are two such large vessels in this section of water, each capable of collecting about 70 tons of trash per day.
For scattered debris that large salvage vessels can’t handle, the Chun’an Environmental Protection Bureau has made ample advance preparations. "There are dozens of motorboats coming and going here every day. Depending on their location, each boat collects several thousand to tens of thousands of pounds of trash daily," said Shang Qimao, a boat owner. Since June, fishermen have been coming out almost daily in nearby boats, either organized by the government or volunteering on their own.
Townships along the lake such as Jinfeng, Songcun, Weiping, and Jiukeng not only help deploy small fishing boats for trash collection but also mobilize hundreds of villagers from various villages to launch a “siege” on garbage stranded along the shore.
Faced with such coordinated efforts, over 90% of the trash is intercepted before it can enter the central area of Qiandao Lake.
"We are currently accelerating the implementation of a barrier net project, which is expected to be completed next month. By then, trash cleanup will become even more efficient," confirmed a relevant official from the Chun’an County Environmental Protection Bureau. The authorities also hire over a hundred boats every flood season to collect trash, with investments reaching tens of millions of yuan. This year’s total trash collection volume is expected to significantly exceed last year’s 100,000 cubic meters. "The trash that washes ashore is temporarily stored before being transported to landfills, where it is sorted and either buried or incinerated."
Data Conclusion:
Water quality monitoring shows Qiandao Lake has not been polluted.
Will this trash storm contaminate Qiandao Lake's water?
One approximate figure: various salvage vessels, township sanitation workers, lakeside organizations, and volunteers collect around 300 tons of trash per day during the flood season. Most of this trash is retrieved from the first 20 kilometers of the 40-kilometer zone, with the amount clearly decreasing the closer it gets to the central part of Qiandao Lake. Near Xiaojingshan, large patches of trash have become rare.
A national-level automatic water quality monitoring station at Jiukou monitors water quality every four hours, focusing mainly on nitrogen and phosphorus levels. A cross-section water test on July 6th showed nitrogen at 2.14 mg/L and phosphorus at 0.157 mg/L, while the multi-year average for these indicators is around 1.50 mg/L for total nitrogen and 0.03 mg/L for total phosphorus. Monitoring personnel said the flood season causes much higher concentrations of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. Recent water quality results are roughly similar to those on July 6th.
It is understood that Qiandao Lake has set up 13 water quality monitoring sections for routine testing. Since 1985, the Jiukou section has consistently had the highest nutrient levels and the poorest water quality among the 13. Xiaojingshan, located 40 kilometers from the Jiukou monitoring station, also has an automatic monitoring site. On July 6th, during the flood season, testing showed the water quality there as Class III, whereas normally the inflow water at this site is Class II.
Another monitoring point is in Mishan, in the southeastern lake area of Qiandao Lake. The most recent test results showed total phosphorus ≤0.01 mg/L and total nitrogen at 0.57 mg/L, with indicators close to the national Class II water standard.
"The closer you get to Xiaojingshan, the better the water quality. Ensuring Class III water quality during the flood season is the result of joint efforts at all stages," said Professor Shao Jianjun from Zhejiang University. He explained that the transition from extremely high nutrient levels at Jiukou to Class III water at the lake inflow is due to both the natural flow and self-purification of the water, as well as the relatively good quality and low nutrient load of water entering the lake from surrounding towns. He believes that Class III water entering the lake during the flood season will not impact the overall water quality of Qiandao Lake.