Japanese trading giant Itochu Corp. will start selling water-processing equipment in China to help combat the country's serious problems with water pollution, a company spokesman said Wednesday.

ITC Green and Water Corp., a water-processing unit of the Tokyo-based trading house, will later this year market a new water-treatment system developed by Japanese contractor Matsue Doken, the spokesman said.

The system will be priced between 40 million and 100 million yen (470,000 and 1.2 million dollars) in China, the spokesman said.

By offering operation and maintenance services for the equipment to Chinese authorities, Itochu aims to generate around one billion yen in sales from the business for the year to March 2012, he added.

The system involves feeding highly concentrated oxygen into polluted waters to treat lakes and ponds as well as rivers and ports where water has been contaminated by heavy metals.

China is forecast to have spent some 850 billion yuan (125 billion dollars) on water-related infrastructure over the past four years, and plans to make large future investments, the Nikkei business daily reported.

earlier related report

Countries agree to monitor shared river
Buenos Aires (UPI) Aug 17, 2010 –

Argentina and Uruguay have agreed to environmental monitoring to determine whether a paper mill is polluting a river along their common border, officials say.

A paper-mill complex built by Uruguay on its side of the Uruguay River has sparked years of protests by Argentineans who accuse Uruguay of ignoring environmental concerns, the journal Nature reported in an online article Monday.

Argentina took Uruguay to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, over the pollution concerns, and scientists on both sides have traded accusations of twisting data to suit their government's agendas.

Financed by Spanish and Finnish companies with $1.2 billion, making it Uruguay's largest-ever foreign investment, the mill started processing eucalyptus wood for paper in 2007.

Uruguayan President Jose Mujica and Argentinean President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner announced July 28 the countries would monitor the Uruguay River together for the first time since 2005.

A four-member panel, with two scientists from each country, will jointly monitor the river several times each year for pollution and algal blooms, officials said.

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