The mother river of Shanghai, Suzhou Creek will wait for a few more years to bid farewell to industrial pollution and restore its past limpidity, vowed by Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng yesterday.

The 3.14-billion yuan (US$387 million) phase three program to clean up the river was inaugurated yesterday. The program is slated for completion just in time for the city to host the 2010 World Expo.

Today's China Daily said that the project will see 27 km of the 34-km dykes strengthened, and 1.3 million cubic meters of river silt dredged. In order to thoroughly rehabilitate the river's ecological system, a 99.2-km sewage pipeline will be built, and a waste processing plant at the creak will be relocated.

The Suzhou Creek was seriously polluted during the past 80 years along with the fast urban development of the city. The river's environmental protection program was introduced in 1997. The first two phases of work involved the lower reaches of the river's mainstream and its six tributaries.

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2007)