There are almost 3,000 tons of human waste discharged everyday
from trains around the country and it's causing a significant
environmental problem along railway lines, according to a
Chinanews.cn report on March 28.
The total length of China's railway lines is more than 70,000
kilometers and the number of passengers being transported annually
is around 1.5 billion.?
However, despite the large increase in passenger numbers, the
toilet facilities have not changed much over the years and waste is
still discharged directly from moving trains.
According to calculations done by relevant specialists, as much
as 3,000 tons of waste are being discharged daily from trains.
During the Spring Festival of 2006, the average daily
number of train passengers reached over 4 million and the whole
volume over the 40-day peak-transport period was more than 100
million.?
Song Fuxiang, associate research fellow at Jilin Beihua
University, said that the waste products of both humans and animals
can contain various pathogens and when exposed to high-speed air
currents they spread very easily.
The State Environmental Protection Administration is taking a
keen interest in the problem according to Chinanews.cn.
China has around 40,000 trains with each of them equipped with
over 30 toilets. This means there are almost 1.2 million rest rooms
to be updated.
(China.org.cn by Wang Ke, March 29, 2006)