No. 4 - Shanghai, China

With just over 14 million inhabitants Shanghai is the fourth largest coastal city in the world.

Inorganic nitrogen and phosphates, found in great quantities in industrial waste water and sewage, remain major threats and may have been the elements that caused red tide to occur in 2000 and 2001. Discharge in coastal waters around Shanghai comes mainly from the Yangtze River. The Yangtze River's drainage area covers an immense area - almost half of China. Over 10 big industrial cities border the river and industrial waste water coming from these cities cause 90% of the direct pollution. Shanghai itself accounts for 10% of the total pollutants. Shanghai is discharging 2.5 million tons of industrial sewage and 3 million tons of human sewage every day into the river. The city has the capacity to treat approximately 500,000 tons of sewage daily, far less than the amount produced. The polluted sea water forms a belt which stretches 4,300 metres and is 500 metres wide just off the Shanghai coast.

In addition to industrial waste, oil spills are also a problem. Yangtze River mouth, Hangzhou Bay, and Xiangshan Port are all oiled zones. Clean up of these spills is the responsibility of the ship owner. 100% of international traders pay for the clean up of their oil spills however just 37% of the smaller, privately owned ships ever pay for recovery costs.

The World Bank is sponsoring projects involving sewage control, and increasing the quality of drinking water by reducing pollution and improving environmental conditions and management in Shanghai. However the state of Shanghai coastal waters is still deteriorating.