Taking a rest in the shade of trees, one could hardly imagine
what the flower-strewn grasslands in northwest China's Shaanxi Province were like only five years
ago.
"The barren mountainous land was pock-faced with thousands of
small oil wells, and stinky sewage was flowing everywhere,
threatening our drinking water," said Guo Zitian, a villager from
the Zhouhe village of ecologically vulnerable Jingbian county.
Since oil was discovered in the region in the 1980s, private oil
wells have sprouted around the state-owned large oil wells,
siphoning off some oil altogether and leaving other hotbeds
split.
Theft was so rampant that some people built houses there as
cover for wells built indoors, and took oil directly from pipelines
while other by-night thieves would literally drive away with
vehicles packed with oil.
Such action caused massive pollution with the tainting of the
Dali River, providing drinking water for local villagers, forcing
some 6,000 villagers in the county to transport water from miles
away.
Referring to those private operators disgustedly as "oil
ghosts", Guo recalled the past conflicted days.
"Villagers always appealed to local courts saying that their
land was ruined by private operators," said an official heading up
the Jingbian county environmental protection bureau. "Private oil
wells with less capital and poor facilities and techniques
neglected environmental protection."
The worsening situation attracted attention from the government,
who ordered a shutdown of private oil wells in 2003.
The shutdown saw a large number of local families lose their
main source of income, and they received compensation from the
government accounting for 70 percent of their losses.
After three years, 70 percent of the private oil wells closed
voluntarily while the rest were shut down by local governments.
The move also propelled other oil fields to invest more on
environmental protection.
In the state-owned Changqing Oil Field, one of the largest in
the region with an annual processing capacity of 10 million tons,
over 500 million yuan has been invested annually in improving
facilities and bolstering ecological environment in the oil
field.
"As we build an oil well, we plant trees around it to minimize
the damage to the environment," said Hao Shengliang, an official
with Changqing Oil Field.
"We urge our staff to pay special attention environmental
protection and conduct both regular and surprise inspections," said
the official with the Jingbian county environmental protection
bureau, "besides, environmental issue is also key to the evaluation
of leaders of the fields"
The exhaust gas in oil exploration used to be discharged into
the air or burned, but now it is transported to nearby residences
for heating or electricity generation.
"Local villagers no longer have to lumber for firewood," said
Fan Xiquan, an official with the oil field, "a virtuous circle of
economic development and environment protection has taken
shape."
China's western regions are vital to the domestic energy
structure, containing 65 percent of the nation's mineral deposits
and 76 percent of its water resources. The area bordering Shaanxi,
Shanxi and Inner Mongolia alone holds 60 percent of
China's verified coal reserves.
However, western regions are prone to natural disasters such as
drought and sand storms.
China has pumped 110 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) on
protecting the environment in western regions since 2000 and has
set a target of reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20
percent between 2006 and 2010 nationwide.
(Xinhua News Agency August 28, 2007)
