Hunan removes pig farms to save 'mother river'

Central China's Hunan province has decided to save its polluted "mother river," the Xiangjiang, by relocating or closing pig farms that line the waterway.

As part of the province's top environmental protection project, Hunan plans to remove hundreds of farms, mostly for pigs and poultry, located within 1,000 meters of the Xiangjiang River and its tributaries by 2016.

The provincial environment protection department is investigating the number and the scale of the farms.

The clean-up plan will cover 67 counties and cities, including Changsha, Xiangtan, Zhuzhou and Hengyang along the Xiangjiang, which is a major water source for Hunan and runs 856 kilometers across the province into China's second-largest freshwater lake, the Dongting Lake.

Hunan ranks as China's top pig producer with annual production of 80 million. However, the booming business has posed a major pollution problem to the Xiangjiang, with an estimated 140 million tonnes of excrement released into the river without proper sanitization.

Under the new plan, no new farms will be allowed to be built within 1,000 meters of the Xiangjiang's banks, and environmental protection authorities will later publicize a list of the locations that fall within the forbidden zone.

The government will also provide technological support to the farms that will be relocated to help them meet the official waste emission standard.