Chinese people's refusal to accept an ever deteriorating
environmental situation has resulted in a rising number of "mass
incidents", the country's chief environment official said on
Wednesday.
Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Environmental Protection
Administration (SEPA), did not give detailed figures or examples
when addressing a national environment meeting on Wednesday.
But Zhou did reveal that his agency received 1,814 petitions in
the first five months of the year appealing for a better
environment, an 8 percent increase over the same period of last
year.
"As people's living standards rise, they are focusing more on
the environment and on quality of life," said Zhou, acknowledging
that repeated environmental incidents have undermined public
confidence.
Since May, blue-green algae outbreaks have been reported in
eastern Taihu Lake, Chaohu Lake and southwestern Dianchi Lake,
endangering local tap water supply.
The local government said on Wednesday water supplies to 200,000
people in Shuyang county in east China's Jiangsu Province had been
halted for more than 40 hours after ammonia and azote polluted a
local river.
An unending series of water pollution incidents has prompted
environmental officials to suddenly become very outspoken.
"In China the environment is facing extremely difficult
conditions," Zhou said.
Zhou also revealed that the administration would treat the
prevention of pollution in the main rivers and lakes as the
priority task in the last six months of the year.
"We will give all the polluted rivers and lakes a rest," he
said, admitting that northern China's Liaohe River and Haihe River
had been seriously contaminated.
There is still a possibility of a pollution outbreak in Chaohu
Lake, Dianchi Lake and drainage area of the Three Gorges offshoot,
he added.
Frequent water pollution incidents also increased the Cabinet's
concern, as a State Council executive meeting presided over by
Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday stressed the need to amend the
existing law on handling of water pollution, allowing for harsher
punishment for illegal practices.
The growth of China's high energy-consuming and polluting
industries in the first five months of 2007 far exceeded that of
the national economy, "posing great difficulties for environmental
protection," said Zhou.
SEPA vice-director Pan Yue said on Tuesday that "traditional
ways of development have caused the near breakdown of China's
resources and environment and people's lives are in great
danger."
Local authorities in six cities, two counties and five
industrial zones - all in the vicinity of the Yellow River, the
Yangtze River, the Huaihe River and the Haihe River - only have
three months to fix their "environmental problems", according to
Pan.
He set in motion a plan to tackle water pollution in China's
four major rivers, mainly targeting illegal pollution
discharge.
(China Daily July 5, 2007)
