MIM Notes 208                   April 15, 2000

Chinese communists fought pollution as soon as they came to 
power in 1949 MC5 comments: Without the profit motive in 
China, the government had no motive to cover up pollution and 
instead sought to measure efficiency by steps toward 100% 
recycling. The article below shows that already in 1962, the 
Chinese communists were more than a decade ahead of the people 
in charge of companies in the West.

When a case of pollution arose, there was no profit-motivated 
cover-up. There was scientific and collective action to undo 
the damage instead. Meanwhile, in the West, the topic of 
pollution fighting was still the prerogative of intellectuals 
with neither government nor corporate power and with 
McCarthyist anti-communism in the air in the 1950s, we can be 
sure the Chinese message did not get much play in the United 
$tates. However, the message did get into China's leading 
daily newspaper as reprinted below. END

"Use Waste Water from Industrial Plants to Irrigate Rice 
Fields"

Communist Party of China 
People's Daily 
5 July 1962

The organic and inorganic contents of waste water from 
industrial plants vary in quantity, depending upon the nature 
of the plants. The most harmful industrial waste water is that 
which contains phenol. This constitutes the largest amount of 
industrial waste water. The waste water from coke plants, oil 
refineries, coal gas factories, and other chemical plants 
belong to this type, and contain various quantities of phenol 
compounds, petroleum, and sulfates. If this kind of poisonous 
industrial water is drained into a body of water (such as a 
river, lake, or sea) before treatment, it will pollute the 
water, kill the fish, and endanger the health of the people. 
If such polluted water is put to industrial use, it will cause 
erosion to machinery, and adversely affect industrial 
production. And if such poisonous waste water is drained into 
the farmland, it will badly affect the normal growth of the 
crops. For instance, fish have disappeared in the Hun River in 
Liaoning Province after it is polluted by the waste water from 
the oil refinery at Fu-shun. Not only so, fish has greatly 
decreased in the lower reaches of the Liao River. The peasants 
of Li-shih-chai, Fu-shun Municipality, who used the polluted 
Han River water to irrigate their rice fields, reaped an 
average of less than 300 chin of rice per "mou" (the unit 
"mou" used here corresponds to 1,000 square meters, or 1.5 
shih mou--a traditional measure used by peasants in Manchuria) 
during the ten years from 1939 to 1949. Before the Hun River 
was polluted, their average harvest was about 500 chin per 
mou.

After the liberation [revolution of 1949--MC5], the peasants 
of Li-shih-chai reviewed the lesson of the low yield during 
the above-mentioned ten year period caused by lodging and the 
rice heat disease, which were in turn caused by irrigation of 
the rice fields by industrial waste water. They adopted a 
number of measures which turned decrease in yield into 
increase in yield. In 1958, the per mou yield of the paddy 
rice fields increased to 810 chin, as compared with 290 chin 
prior to 1949. However, lodging still happened in fields where 
polluted water was used. In 1957, lodging occurred on 65.6 
percent of the total paddy rice fields and the average per mou 
yield was only around 400 chin. This fact explains that the 
prevention of lodging was an urgent problem to be solved for 
rice fields irrigated by polluted water.

The Forestry and Soil Research Institute of Academia Sinica 
started in 1959 a research project on the effect of using the 
waste water from the Fu-shun Petroleum Refinery to irrigate 
rice fields.

The institute obtained the following results in the last three 
years with the cooperation of various units:

The composition of industrial waste water containing phenol is 
very complicated. It contains elements useful to crops, as 
well as elements harmful to crops. The elements which are 
known to be useful to crops include organic nitrogen, nitrogen 
in the form of ammonia, and a certain kind of organic 
stimulating matter, while the main harmful elements are phenol 
compounds, petroleum and sulfates. If the latter are 
controlled within a certain limit, the useful elements will 
show a maximum effect of increasing production. The occurrence 
of lodging or heat disease was mainly attributable to the 
improper proportion between harmful and useful elements in the 
waste water. [...]

In the check area where an equivalent amount of ammonium 
sulfate fertilizer is used, the output of paddy rice, the rate 
of grain yield, and protein content in the grain are about the 
same as those on the fields irrigated by industrial waste 
waters. However, the development of stems and the root systems 
of paddy rice irrigated by industrial waste water is 
noticeably better than that in the check area. This shows that 
aside from nitrogen in the state of ammonia, there are some 
other useful elements in the industrial waste water favorable 
to the growth of crops.

From field experiments, it is found that industrial waste 
water contains a certain kind of organic stimulating matter, 
which settles in the top soil, and has a highly fertilizing 
effect. The presence or absence of this matter spells a great 
difference in the growth of paddy rice even under the norm of 
hydrogen fertilization.

From petroleum, a certain kind of stimulating element can be 
extracted. When a small amount of this element is added to the 
soil, all the useful micro-organisms in the soil, such as 
nitrogen fixing bacteria, actinomycetes, and true fungus will 
show a better development, increase the fixation of nitrogen 
isolated in the air, and ensure a better accumulation of 
nutritious compounds in the plant. If this element is used 
together with phosphorous fertilizer, it will curtail the 
function of soil in fixing effective phosphorous, and at the 
same time increase the absorption ability of plants in respect 
to phosphorous. It has been confirmed by years of research in 
China and abroad that if this petroleum stimulant is used in 
an extremely small amount alone (100 g per hectare), or used 
together with ammonium sulfate and calcium superphosphate 
fertilizers, it will hasten the growth of paddy rice, wheat, 
corn and other food grains, vegetables, fruit trees, and 
forest plants. Further research in this respect will be done 
in the future. [...]

As soon as the industrial waste water containing phenol flows 
into the field, it is quickly purified by the oxygen generated 
from the rice plants and the free oxygen in the air, and by 
the bio-chemical effect of the micro-organisms in the soil. An 
analysis of the water in an experimental field shows that 77.3 
percent and 85 percent of the volatile phenol are removed 48 
and 96 hours, respectively, after the industrial waste water 
flows into the field, 55.4 percent and 70 percent of the 
petroleum elements are removed 48 hours and 96 hours 
respectively, after the waste water flows into the field, and 
80 percent of the sulfates is purified 48 hours after the 
waste water flows into the field. The rivers and lakes are 
much less polluted by industrial waste waters after the latter 
have been used in paddy rice fields for irrigation.

The purification experiment shows that soil has a strong 
purification effect on industrial waste waters which contain 
phenol, and that the poisonous elements in waste waters can be 
comparatively thoroughly purified in the field through a 
natural process.

To use industrial waste waters containing phenol for 
irrigation not only means the use of a rich source of 
fertilizer, but also means an economic and scientific 
treatment of poisonous industrial waste water. This is a 
measure with double advantages. [...]

Note: The complete article is available on-line at: 
http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/classics/classics.html