People in Jinshan District are worried about the quality of river water. So worried, they are not convinced it is fit for irrigation purposes, let alone swimming.
Just 20 years ago, these same people swam in the rivers. But too many factories polluted the tributary rivers of the mighty Yangtze River.
The pollution also eliminated the beauty of the "hometown of fish and rice" - once used to describe the southeast region where Jinshan District is found.
"We did make a lot of money during industrialization, but the development came at the expense of our health and even lives," said Chen Yongchao, director from the Jinshan Water Affairs Bureau.
"Now we have to drink what we polluted." Chen was a party secretary in one of the district's towns before he took the post as bureau director.
"At that time I, like many other government officials, didn't pay much attention to water quality," Chen said.
The district set up the water affairs bureau in 2001 during a period when many district-level governments around the country established similar departments.
Those bureaus were established with the hope of returning clean water to residents.
Controlling factory pollution is a priority for the Jinshan District Water Affairs Bureau.
The bureau is responsible for examining sewage tunnels and that water pollution prevention measures meet quality standards. The check also covers the quantity of water discharged by each factory.
"Sometimes, the tables that enterprises hand in do not tell us everything, so we need to check the real situation," Chen said.
Every Monday, the bureau's vice directors visit those seeking to invest in the district to check qualifications of each applicant. The district is also going to enlarge its water coverage from 7.3 percent to 10 percent before 2010. Shanghai's water coverage is 11.8 percent.
Due to Jinshan's location, the area does not have much water resources.
Chen said before large scale construction took place, village people were encouraged to dig river tunnels to introduce more water. However in the past 20 years, people buried more rivers than they dug to attract factories. "We have to bring back the water that we eliminated during the construction," Chen said.
The district is building milldams and introducing water from Huangpu River to flush out and reduce pollution levels.
There are some encouraging signs.
In Zhuhang Town, people have found schools of carp swimming in rivers again.
Moreover, a 100 million yuan (US$12.05 million) sewage plant with the capacity to treat 14,000 tons of polluted water will begin operation in October.
A digital system was set up for the bureau to supervise its 1,690 creeks and rivers.
To make people realize the importance of water, the bureau is also going to build a water museum.
"It's important for us to realize the history of water. Our city was born from water and we can't survive without it," Chen said.