Various forms of pollution (especially air pollution and water pollution) have increased as China is being industrialized. Although China has taken some action, overall the situation keeps deteriorating. Here are some appalling photos showing the heavy pollution in China.

Pollution in China is one aspect of the broader topic of environmental issues in China. Various forms of pollution (water pollution, air pollution, etc.) have increased as China is being industrialized. The industrialization has caused widespread environmental and health problems.

Although China has responded with increasing environmental regulations and a build-up of pollutant treatment infrastructure which have caused improvements on some variables, but overall the situation keeps deteriorating due to the short-sighted leaders who concentrate on economic development and unawareness of the public of the long-term loss caused by environmental problems. And environmental laws as well as all other laws in China are often not strictly followed.

Following are some appalling photos taken by famous Chinese photographer and environmentalist Lu Guang showing heavy pollution in China and the environmental disasters of current China.

Lu Guang (??) was born in Zhejiang province and encountered photography at the age of 20 when working in a silk factory. He studied at Beijing's Tsinghua University from 1993 to 1995 and has since worked as a freelance photographer.

Skilled at social documentary photography, his insightful, creative and artistic work often focused on “social phenomena and people living at the bottom of society”. Many of his award winning works focused on social issues like, “gold rush in the west”, “drug girl”, “small coal pit”, “HIV village” and so on.

In 2003, Lu was awarded the first prize for a story about contemporary issues from World Press Photo for his photographs of Henan Province peasants who had been infected with HIV after selling their blood.

His picture story on drug addicts in southern Yunnan was exhibited at Visa pour l'Image that same year. In 2005, he became the first photographer from China to be invited by the US Department of State as a visiting scholar.

In 2008, he was awarded Gruner + Jahr's Henri Nannen Prize for photojournalism. In 2009, he received the $30,000 W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography for his project "Pollution in China".

View the China pictures as a slide show

 

Fan Jia Zhuang in Anyang City, Henan province, (河南安阳市范家庄) was close to an industrial chimney. The village was under the iron rain every day because there was only one wall separating this village from the steelmaking furnaces. The villagers risked their lives living in this heavily polluted environment. March 24, 2008

 

Industrial sewage of Zhejiang Xiaoshan Chemistry Industrial Park (浙江萧山化工园区) eventually flowed into Qiantang River which provides drinking water for millions of residents in the area including metropolis provincial capital city Hangzhou. April 24, 2009

 

Waste water generated by Henan Anyang iron and steel plant’s (河南安阳钢铁厂) was discharged into Anyang River without being treated. March 25, 2008

 

A villager was washing something in a seriously polluted pond in Guiyu town, Guangdong province, (广东省贵屿镇) where rivers and reservoirs have been contaminated. November 25, 2005

 

Tall chimneys in Shizuishan Hubin Industrial Park in Ningxia province (宁夏石嘴山湖滨工业园区) were caught spitting out smoke and dust. A Resident wore scarf to fend off the falling dust from the sky when going outside. April 22, 2006

 

On the Yellow Sea coastline, countless sewage pipes were buried in the beach and even extended into the deep sea. April 28, 2008

 

There are many small-scaled iron factories and plastic processing plants along the Yangtze River in Ma’anshan, Anhui province (安徽马鞍山). Large amounts of sewage were discharged into the Yangtze River without pretreatment. June 18, 2009

 

Two huge “black dragons” shaped by the smoke puffed out from the numerous chimneys of Lasengmiao Power Plant (内蒙古拉僧庙发电厂) in Inner Mongolia, covering the sky over the nearby villages. July 26, 2005

 

Changshu Fluorine Chemical Industry Sewage Treating Plant (江苏省常熟市氟化学工业园污水处理厂) was responsible for collecting and processing the industrial sewage in Changshu city, Jiangsu province. However they did not, the sewage pipe was extended 1500 meters and sewage was released directly into the Yangtze River. June 11 2009.

 

Soil along the Yangtze River was polluted by Ma’anshan Chemical Industrial District of Anhui Province (安徽省马鞍山化工园区). June 26, 2009

 

Large amount of industrial wastewater flowed to Yellow River from Inner Mongolia Lasengmiao Industrial District (内蒙古拉僧庙工业园区) every day. July 26, 2005

 

Large amount of chemical wastewater was discharged into Yangtze River from Zhenjiang Titanium mill (镇江市钛粉厂) every day. A large water processing plant providing drinking water to more than a million residents of Danyang City was located less than 1,000 meters away downstream. June 10, 2009

 

Chemical Industrial District Sewage Treatment Plant (江苏省海门市化工园区污水处理厂) in Haimen city, Jiangsu province discharged wastewater into Yangtze River without pre-treating it. June 5, 2009

 

Tianjin Iron and Steel Plant (河北省涉县天津钢铁厂) in Shexian of Hebei Province is a heavily polluting company. The company was still growing, seriously affecting the lives of local residents. March 18, 2008

 

Longmen town in Hanchen city, Shaanxi Province (陕西省韩城市龙门镇) has a large-scaled industrial development zone. Environment was very seriously polluted there. April 8, 2008

 

There were over 100 chemical plants in the Binhai Touzeng Coastline Chemical Industrial Park in Binhai county, Yancheng city, Jiangsu province (江苏滨海头罾沿海化工园区) . Some of them discharged wastewater directly into the ocean. Some heavily contaminated sewage was stored in 5 “Sewage Temporary Pools”; During the 2 high tides in every month, the temporarily stored sewage was discharged into the ocean with the tides. June 20, 2008

 

Hu Kou County Chemical Industry district (江西省胡口县化工园区) in Jiangxi Province is located by the Yangtze River. Many chemical factory used the bank of the Yangtze River as landfill sites privately or reclaimed land from the river bank to expand the factories without permission from the authority.

 

Anhui Province Cihu Chemical Industry District (安徽省慈湖化工园区) built a underground pipe to discharge wastewater into the Yangtze River. The wastewater was sometimes black, gray, dark red, or yellow and wastewater from different chemical factories had different colors. June 18, 2009

 

Shanxi Province is the most polluted area of China. It is also the province with the highest rate of birth defects. This loving farmer couple adopted 17 disabled children. April 15, 2009

 

An elder shepherd by the Yellow River could not stand the smell. April 23, 2006