Work started Monday to intercept pollutants in the Futian and Xinzhou rivers, an important step toward cleaning up the city's water.

Workers Monday began demolishing an old sluice downstream on the Futian River to make way for a new one. Construction of a sluice on the Xinzhou River also started Monday. Meanwhile, tenders were to be called soon for a sluice to be built on the Dasha River, the Shenzhen Evening News reported.

The government plans to complete the sluices by April next year and clean up the rivers by the end of 2005 and then transform the river environs into scenic areas.

The three rivers are all filthy with numerous sources of pollutants being discharged daily. About 40,000 tons of filthy pollutants are discharged into the Futian River each day while about 60,000 tons go into the Xinzhou River. The Dasha River is polluted with about 80,000 tons of filthy discharge each day.

Huang Tianyuan, head of the Shenzhen water bureau, said a lot of polluted water was discharged into the rivers without being treated.

He pledged to improve the city's wastewater pipeline network and punish those illegally discharging pollutants. Huang also promised to increase water flows in the rivers to dilute the pollution.

With little fresh water flowing into the rivers, they are almost stagnant, except in flood seasons. Investigations show that the Futian River has 57,000 cubic meters of silt, the Xinzhou River 63,500 cubic meters and the Dasha River 50,000 cubic meters.

The 6.8-kilometer Futian River originates in northern Shenzhen and enters the Shenzhen River near the Huanggang Checkpoint. The 7.85-kilometer Xinzhou River originates west of the new city center and flows into the Shenzhen Bay. The Dasha River extends 13.5 kilometers from the Changlingpo Reservoir in Nanshan District to the Houhai Bay.

Editor: Catherine