China will take its first big step to combat persistent organic
pollutants (POPs) on the mainland, with Zhejiang Province in the
east a chief beneficiary of the project.
A PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) Management and Disposal
Demonstration Project will be carried on in Zhejiang and northeast
China's Liaoning Province in the next four years, the State
Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) said on Friday in
Beijing.
As the first exemplary project for China to fulfill its
commitment to the Stockholm Convention of reducing and preventing
POPs, the project will cost more than US$32 million, among which
the Global Environmental Facility will contribute US$18 million and
the rest will come from Chinese local governments and other
countries, such as Italy, according to Zhuang Guotai, vice-director
of the Office for Stockholm POPs Convention Implementation under
SEPA.
SEPA plans to eliminate PCBs by 2025.
PCBs had been used in the production of large-scaled capacitors
for power plants and paint making in 1960s and '70s. Although
currently most of capacitors containing PCBs have been abandoned
and buried, there are still about 20,000 such toxic capacitors at
work. It is estimated that China has six to eight tons of serious
PCBs and 60-80 tons of light PCBs on the mainland, posing great
threat on human being's health and the environment.
"We plan to clear the PCBs in 56 storage places in Zhejiang
Province," Zhuang said.
"Compared with the achievements in controlling and preventing
pollution in soil and water, the country's work in regard to toxic
chemicals is relatively backward," said Zhang Lijun, vice-minister
of SEPA. "China will strengthen its efforts in this aspect."
However, the country is facing many difficulties in controlling
and preventing POPs, Zhuang said.
It is urgent that China make clear the distribution of different
kinds of POPs, such as PCBs, a report by the Environmental Science
School of Beijing Normal
University said. And the country's enforcement capability,
technology, on-line management and financing all need to be
improved.
China signed the Stockholm Convention on POPs in 2001. It
actually has been in effect in China for just one year.
(China Daily January 7, 2006)