THIRD river mysteriously turns white in China.

Furious villagers in eastern China are demanding the closure of a new stone quarry after it turned their river completely white.

Residents in Aodi, Zhejiang province, say the river is now so heavily polluted that they can't use it for drinking water for their livestock, nor are they able to water their crops.

They say that since the quarry opened a few years ago, the water regularly turns white, as the quarry bosses use the river to drain away residue caused by blast-cleaning white stones, which are cut from pits beside the river.

One local resident told reporters: 'Our animals can't drink it, it poisons the fields and we can't even wash our clothes in it. We want this quarry closed now.'

It is just one of a number of rising concerns about water in China - it is not the first time rivers have taken on different hues - and there are regularly reports of everything from pollutants to dead bodies found in waters used for cleaning and drinking.

Last month a milky white river in Jiangsu city turned white, and included a bad smell. The reasons for the colour change is still not known - but researchers discovered that there are now no living animals reported to be found in the 10 meter wide body of water.

There were reports in July of how a natural latex polluted more than a mile of the Quxi River in China’s Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province.

The river also turned into a 'river of milk', which is blamed on a local latex company in the region.

Resident Xiao Wu said: 'Only yesterday, I was doing my laundry in the river, and yet this morning it’s turned completely white, as though somebody poured milk into it.'

This also follows a case of an orange river in Jiaxing city created by excessive iron ions in the water last March.

Last month, the residents of Chongqing woke up to find the Yangtze river, which runs through the city in south-western China, coloured a bright shade of orange-red.

While officials investigate the cause of the colouring, one fisherman went about his daily business as if nothing had happened.

Others were so amazed that they collected samples in water bottles.



Shock: The Yangtze river, which runs through the city in south-western China, turned a bright shade of orange-red yesterday

Although the cause is yet to be determined, it is not the first time a river has turned red in China.

Last December, the Jian River in the city of Luoyang, in the north Henan province, turned red after becoming polluted by a powerful dye.

The dye was being dumped into the city's storm drain network by two illegal dye workshops.

Officials raided the factories to shut them down, and then disassembled their machinery.

According to chapter 16, verse 4 of the Bible's book of Revelations, one of the signs that Armageddon is near will be an angel pouring a bowl into the rivers, turning them into blood.


Bizarre: The red river gave Chongqing an apocalyptic appearance yesterday