Green shoots in Wuxi offer fresh hope

But in contrast, some cities such as Wuxi - the industrialized town in Jiangsu province of about 5 million people,

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150 kilometers from Shanghai - are actually making very responsible efforts to cut down where needed, and in its case to rid itself of the image of being one of the worst polluters in China.

Officials there have been candid in admitting that it was indeed the culprit in the infamous algae crisis of five years ago, which left the surface of Taihu Lake - the third largest freshwater lake in China - covered in a layer of blue scum.

The city's chemical factories had released so much pollution in 2007 that nearly 2 million citizens were deprived of cooking and drinking water for a week because of the scum.

Now Jiangsu officials are taking steps to restore Taihu's ecological balance by ridding it of the discharge of industrial wastewater.

Officials have spent a considerable amount on cleanup measures. Wuxi now pumps half of its drinking water from the Yangtze River instead of Taihu, resulting in an improvement in the water quality of the nearby wetlands and the lake itself.

The ecological reclamation of former industrial sites is now part of Wuxi's new industry.

But many ask, how much does improved water quality and a few more wild water birds really add to a city's GDP?

There are no figures on that and there never will be, but few doubt it will certainly add to the city's appeal to future investors.

Environmental quality is the starting point for many cities as they complete their industrial transitions - because if cities do not manage to change the sources of their GDP, people will simply start to move away and never come back.

Whatever their plans, they just won't have a future.

The author is editor-at-large of China Daily.