Villagers here rage with anger because murky, frothy water is all they have to drink. A paper factory is dumping untreated waste water directly into the local water supply. It's been going on for years. We've gone to see the head of our county, but he won't do anything either. The complaints from Shaanxi province are not unusual.
Air pollution is even worse.
Respiratory diseases are the number one killer in China, a country that has five of the world's 10 most polluted cities. While economic growth has proceeded at a breathless pace over the past 20 years, the environmental consequences have been an afterthought. China's environmental movement is enthusiastic, but new. Some schoolchildren and their parents are now learning about the need to keep their country's water clean. They think there's an endless supply.