Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan Wednesday called for stepping up environmental protection efforts Wednesday to check the continuing environmental degradation in the country, especially the pollution in the valleys of the country's major rivers.

China continues to face stiff challenges with regard to pollution control, and some anti-pollution projects have a long way to go to reach the target set in the country's 10th five-year plan for 2001-2005, said Zeng at a national conference on pollution control in major river valleys and major lake areas.

Pollution control in river valleys and lake areas is crucial to the country's efforts to control pollution as a whole, Zeng said, while calling for stricter controls on pollutant discharge in water, the early phasing out of outdated equipment and technologies and the building of more urban facilities for sewage and waste treatment.

The central government is working hard on environmental protection and ecological development through a number of projects, including pollution control in the Huaihe, Haihe and Liaohe rivers and in Lakes Taihu, Dianchi and Chaohu. The government is also setting up sulfur dioxide and acid rain control areas.

The central government has issued more than 69 billion yuan (some US$8.31 billion) in government bonds to generate funds for pollution control nationwide, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2003)