The fetid river you didn't see on the Beijing Olympics

Would you let anyone you know fish for their breakfast in this?

Lest the pageantry and scrubbed skyline of the televised Beijing Olympics lull the world into thinking local officials have finished cleaning up China, it's important to remember that much work remains to be done.

On a recent visit to Beijing, I was fascinated—in a morbid sort of way—with the river running behind my hotel, on Liangmaquio Road.

There, in full view of the luxury hotel where I was, ironically, chairing the China Water Congress (see The Wild West of water in China), snaked a waterway too festering, too morbid, too post-apocalyptic to be even a movie set.

The water was an otherworldly hue. A nuclear green, with a crust of plastics and paper debris. And while it seemed incomprehensible that anything could be living in its depths, others apparently felt differently.

If they're fishing in this, there must be even worse places.

China has made great progress in cleaning up Beijing in preparation for the Olympics. Even three months before the games, when these pictures were taken, locals swelled with pride over the improved visibility from temporarily shutting down neighboring coal power plants and heavy manufacturing.

But clearing the air is just one part of the challenge.

The personal, up-close experience with this waterway in China underscored, to me, the dramatic commercial opportunities that exist in participating with China's central government on water improvement projects. Those with the perseverance to navigate the complex public-private partnerships required to do business in China stand to reap rewards (again, as a primer, I recommend The Wild West of water in China.)

There's no lack of need.

There are the obvious water quality issues documented here, and even more pressing water quantity issues. But that's another topic.

The river from above, on a sunny day. And this was AFTER shutting
down coal power plants and heavy factories around the city.