Russia, China complete monitoring of cross-border rivers

In the past week, China and Russia sampled water and carried out hydrological measurements on the river Razdolnaya at the border-crossing point, and Lake Khanka, which is riverhead of the Sungacha, director of the Primorye Center for Environmental Pollution Monitoring Galina Semykina said. Laboratories have begun tests of the water samples. The results are due in a month, Semykina said. The parties also exchanged coded samples to determine the content of nitrates, permanganate demand, mercury, arsenic and manganese, which will help determine the quality of measurements by Chinese and Russian laboratories. It was the third monitoring of cross-border rivers involving Chinese specialists. It is part of the joint Russian-Chinese monitoring of the quality of water, signed in Beijing on May 31, 2006, and the program of events to implement a joint monitoring of the quality of cross-border water basins, agreed upon in the town of Sanya on January 22, 2008; Kazinform cites ITAR-TASS. See www.itar-tass.com for full version