In surveys Mason City residents rank water sports (swimming, boating, and fishing) among their favorite recreational activities. The Mason River flowing through the city is rarely used for these pursuits, however, and the city park department devotes litt

Owing to residents' long-term complains about the quality of Mason river’s water and its smell which flows through Mason City, the government should devote more money to clean up it and to maintain riverside recreational facilities so that use of the river for water sports will be sure to increase. Is it true if this was done in this way? Carefully considering the survey, there are some details to be questioned: residents' favorite recreational activities, the river rarely used for water sports and the city park department devoting little money to maintaining recreational facilities along the river, and residents’ complaints about the river’s water quality and smell.
First of all, is the survey made in a realistic and scientific way? Is the result from the investigation credible? Is it outdated, cryptic, or even useless? In fact, an investigation needs a careful plan in a scientific, systematic manner to obtain the first-hand data from the reality, so that it can be used for researchers' analysis and concerned organization’s reference. Suppose that the survey was only from a water-sport business, who interviewed the minority of residents along the river, and the asked questions were about water sports such as swimming, boating and fishing, not other recreational programs. Obviously, this investigation is full of dubious aspects: are these residents representative? are they really interested in the above-mentioned sports? does the river has no other use for local residents, except for water sports? As a water-sport recreational business, the designed investigation may be based on its own benefits, which, after all, is the top concern of it——the investment-benefit synthetical analysis, the result of which will be important for the business to make the decision of opening up recreational activities along Mason River. Moreover, was this survey made a few years ago or longer time? If did, it would lose its value for today’s reference. A new investigation may be necessary for the authorities to invest cleaning up the river.
Another question is that the city park department devoted little money to maintaining recreational facilities along the river. Above all, it should be sure whether Mason City has enough money to distribute such program or not. If Mason City was less developed, the government money would have invested in industrial field and the basic necessities of the public, not to mention such recreational facilities. So, money, as the key factor for any project, has become the problem for the city park department to continue investing this project——which also may mean that the investment in recreational facilities would not bring about good returns. Furthermore, has the city changed its development project? In China, the majority of city parks have become free-fee places where have become the open place for recreation and entertainment of the public at any time, either on weekends or on workdays. Therefore, such the place like Mason river has been prohibited from profitable programs, and another possibility is that if the city park department had little finance from other sources, naturally these recreational facilities would not be kept regular repairment.
Lastly, have the residents been complaints about the quality of the river’s water and the river’s smell for years? Why does the river become so notorious? Why has the government ignored the residents’ complaints for many years? First of all, who collected and published residents’ complaints? And for many years, how many residents have lodged their complaints to the local government? Perhaps, there are only a few people who did? And these complaints may have passed a few years. Now the government may rarely have received such complaints. Secondly, what makes the quality of the river’s water become so bad and smell so stinky? This must be made clear. Only really knowing the reason of the problem, can people find a solution to deal with it. If the river was of such characteristic of large numbers of microbe live at the bottom of the river which emit extreme repulsive smell, for these, it would be difficult to get rid of them unless the city completely changes the environment of water body. The other sources may be the pollution of industry and residents' life. As is known, nowadays the industrial pollution in city is very serious, especially in China, which has been the top target of public criticism. Many enterprises, like food, chemistry, discharge large amounts of waste water and waste residues, which have produced severe damage to the city’s water body, and even causing the pollution of the whole water sources. Certain plague may also produce long-term influence on the water body. For instance, Mason City had outbroken swine plague many years ago, and since then the Mason river has been emitted a kind of nasty smell because of the pests resulting in microbes multiplying with giving off such gases as ammonia, a kind of notorious gas. So, for governments, they may be at a loss what to do at present.
In short, whether the government should use its limit finance to Mason river’s recreational facilities or not depends on the amount of its money, the necessity of city development project, and the investment-return ratio. And it should also make clear whether the residents’ complaints are true or not. If the government financed to clean up Mason river and the water-sport program, would it really attract people to come here for entertainment? A careful new planning and investigation are needed before doing this above-mentioned decision.