Eutrophication status and control strategy of Taihu Lake

The water quality and eutrophication status of Taihu Lake in recent years are presented and the pollution trends are analyzed. It is shown that because of unreasonable industrial structures, pollution discharge per GDP is high within the Taihu basin, and the pollution discharge from point and non-point sources exceed the basin’s environmental carrying capacity. Especially, excessive pollutants containing nitrogen and phosphorus are being discharged. Moreover, eutrophication may also result from internal pollution sources such as the release of nutrient elements from sediment. All these factors have resulted in the water quality deterioration of Taihu Lake. To solve this environmental problem, possible control strategies are summarized, including the control of internal pollution sources and inflow-river pollution, ecological restoration and reconstruction of the degraded lakeside zone ecosystem, clean water diversion, dredging, and manual algae removal.