Sentinel fish test water quality

The South-to-North Water Diversion will be launched in Beijing in October. According to the project monitoring office, biological and technological measures will be used to monitor the quality of the water transferred to Beijing, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

The project will encompass 6,000 square kilometers across 15 districts and counties. There are 109 monitoring indexes, among which tests for toxic and heavy metal substances are the most important. According to Yuan Boyu, an engineer at the monitoring office, medaka fish will be put into the water being transferred to Beijing to help monitor its quality. Since medaka cannot survive in polluted water, their survival will serve as an indicator of the quality of the water.