During an interview with Chinanews.com, Gao Zhiguo, director of the
China Institute for Marine Affairs and deputy to
the 10th National People's Congress (NPC),
spoke about the pollution affecting the Bohai Sea and addressed the
need to learn from successful models in foreign countries to
swiftly pass legislation bolstering the area's environmental
protection.
Xinhua statistics have indicated that 26 to 41 percent of the
Bohai Sea area had consistently failed to meet required
environmental protection standards over the last few years. A major
contributing factor has been that over 81 percent of sewers located
around the sea are disgorged straight into it.
Lying off the coast of north China, and surrounding one of
China's most populous areas, the half-enclosed Bohai Sea contains
unique topography and resources, lending it high economic value,
said Gao. The sea, the shores of which encompass Shandong, Hebei, Liaoning and Tianjin, now forms one of China's three most
developed regions, along with the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl
River Delta.
"However, while enjoying rapid regional economic development,
the area has come under threat from unprecedented ecological and
environmental pressures," said Gao.
Gao revealed that the condition of coastal waters is becoming
increasingly dire, as pollution increases in terms of severity and
area affected. Ecological systems are being damaged with fishery
resources at bursting point. Furthermore, an increase of maritime
environmental calamities, such as red tides (an increase in
nutrients in the water cause the appearance of phytoplankton that
appear to turn the water red and threaten native wildlife) or oil
spills, is piling on more pressure on Bohai Sea. Xinhua reported in
January that 11 separate red tides were seen in the Bohai Sea in
2006.
Statistics released by Gao show that the Bohai Sea bore the
brunt of 5.7 billion tons of toxic waste and 2 billion tons of
solid waste being dumped into its waters each year. Widespread
pollution has wreaked havoc on the sea's natural eco-system with
many aquatic plants, fish, shrimps and crabs dying, harming the
local fishing industry.
Gao explained that environmental pollution was continuing to
worsen despite governmental measures taken to curb its impact in
recent years. Addressing a potential solution, Gao pressed that "it
is necessary to thoroughly solve the ecological and environmental
problems facing the Bohai Sea through regional legislation."
Being half-enclosed, the Bohai Sea has a limited environmental
capacity, Gao said, adding that Chinese environmental legislation
was by and large inadequate. It tended to focus on wide-angle
issues, addressing more general environmental protection problems,
which proved wholly useless in terms of helping specific ecological
scenarios such as that of the Bohai Sea. Furthermore, current
Chinese laws on oceanic environmental protection suffer from the
absence of an overseeing body. "The lack of necessary coordination
and cooperation between departments has obviously held up the
implementation of laws," Gao said.
Only specific legislation which takes into account the region's
individual and particular needs can be of any assistance in helping
standardize development and management for enclosed sea areas, Gao
said. He put forward positive international models as examples to
help speed up legislation helping bolster environmental protection
in Bohai. "The successful experiences of Setonaikai in Japan and
the Chesapeake Bay in the United States in harnessing sea pollution
are very representative and China may use these as reference," Gao
said.
Gao, who is also the executive vice chairman of the China
Society for Maritime Law, said that in the past two decades,
related Chinese departments and researchers have made much progress
in carrying out regional legislation for inland sea environmental
protection, creating an ideal climate in which to pass the Law on
the Environmental Protection of the Bohai Sea.
(China.org.cn by Li Jingrong, March 14, 2007)
