Everyone knows China is on of the most polluted places on earth. Many of the rivers in China are so polluted they no longer support life. In some rivers the pollution level is so toxic that merely touching the water can cause skin burns.
The unchecked pollution in Chinese waters however, is now threatening at least one popular Olympic event–sailing. With only six weeks until China hosts the Olympic sailing regatta in the city of Qingdao, officials are working feverishly to clean up a massive algae bloom that is choking off large stretches of coastline.
As many as 20,000 people and more than 1,000 boats are participating in the clean-up effort. Nearly a third of the coastal waters (5,000 sq. miles) designated for the Olympic games is covered by the algae.
Algae blooms occur naturally in the Yellow Sea and elsewhere, however the size of the bloom is believed by everyone except Chinese officials to be caused from the raw sewage that is dumped into the water daily. In addition to that, the rivers and tributaries that flow in to the coastal waters are often polluted with industrial run-off.
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