This sprawling, jade-hued lake in eastern China is pleasant enough on a cool spring day. But when spring warms into sultry summer, Chaohu turns slimy and stinky as algae fed by sewage, farm and factory runoff bloom, leaving it toxic and undrinkable.

China’s pollution busters, banking on a rather unorthodox approach, are hoping this summer might be different.

Across the country, officials desperate to meet a national goal of restoring China’s severely polluted lakes by 2030 are dumping tons of voracious fish into lakes in hopes they will gobble up the algae infestations.

Other countries have tried this in sewage treatment pools or drinking water reservoirs — with mixed success — but nowhere else has it been attempted on such a large scale.

Workers dumped 1.6 million silver carp fry into Chaohu Lake in February in the largest such project in China. They expect each fish to eat as much as 100 pounds of algae as they grow, helping to ensure clean drinking water for more than a million people.

“We’re trying to restore the ecological balance. That’s the main principle,” Che Jiahu, a local fisheries official, said in his chilly office in Zhongmiao, a small temple town on Chaohu’s north shore. The village is a tourist attraction — when the algae is not in full bloom.

Officials also hope the carp will revive a local fishing industry nearly wiped out by pollution. They shrug off questions about the wisdom of consuming fish that feed on pollutant-laden algae.

“We’ve never heard of anyone getting sick from eating Chaohu’s fish or aquatic products,” Che said. The fish are not as tasty as when he was a child, he concedes, but “still, I believe fish that eat the algae are safe.”

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