The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will cooperate with China in developing a market-based system to manage water pollution, said the bank in a news release on Thursday.

A policy study on market-based instruments for water pollution control seeks to strengthen water pollution management systems to help the country achieve its water pollution control target more effectively and efficiently, said the multilateral developing finance institution.

The file picture shows the water pollution of the Sancha River in Yichang, central China's Hubei Province, in March this year.

It added that the project will develop a set of policy advice and recommendations that will serve as basis for introducing market-based instruments and mechanisms to combat the country's water pollution problems.

ADB will provide a US$500,000 grant for the project, which is estimated to cost US$650,000. The balance will be covered by the Chinese government.

The country has been experiencing rapid economic expansion since the late 1970s, maintaining an average annual gross domestic product growth of about 9 percent and lifting millions of people out of absolute poverty.

"Along with the rapid growth, however, the country has been faced with the increasingly difficult task of controlling environmental pollution, resources depletion and ecological degradation. Despite government efforts and investment, the country has yet to arrest these problems," said Yue Fei, senior social sector economist of ADB's East Asia Department.

Water pollution has emerged as a most pressing environmental concern of the Chinese government. To further enhance water pollution control, the government has determined to set for the 11th Five-Year Program a mandatory performance target to reduce the chemical oxygen demand discharge by 10 percent using 2005 as base year.

(Xinhua News Agency, Chinanews.com October 19, 2007)