China premier orders water pollution probe

BEIJING, June 11 (UPI) -- Wen Jiabao" class="tpstyle">Premier Wen Jiabao" class="tpstyle">Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has ordered an investigation into the pollution of a lake that supplies water to 2 million people in the East.

Jiabao asked federal and local government officials, environmental workers, scholars and researchers attending a symposium in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, to investigate the source of the pollution and recommend measures to protect the drinking water supply from future contamination, Xinhua, China's official government-run news agency, reported Monday.

"The pollution of Taihu Lake has sounded the alarm for us," Wen said. He noted efforts had been made in recent years to reduce pollution of the lake, "but the problem has never been tackled at the root."

More than 6,000 tons of blue algae have been removed from the lake since cleanup began in May. The algae, which had been brought on by low water levels and high levels of waste and untreated sewage, had rendered the lake water undrinkable and forced authorities to dilute the lake with water from the Yangtze River.