Beijing launched its first survey of pollution sources on Friday
in a bid to improve the environment.
The survey will investigate 82,000 sources of industrial,
agricultural and residential pollution and pollution treatment
facilities across the city, said Zhong Liangxi, an official with
the pollution sources department of the Beijing Municipal
Environmental Protection Bureau.
Seven thousand people recruited from the public will receive
training courses on statistics, how to fill out investigation forms
and study relative rules and regulations about pollution
control.
They will begin visiting each of the pollution sources in
February and the investigation is expected to be completed in June.
All the information will be put into a database and the final
analysis will be announced in July 2009, said Zhong.
"The move is significant for working out scientific policies on
pollution control in Beijing, as the sources of pollution have kept
changing in recent years amid economic development," said
Zhong.
Beijing's endeavor is part of the first ever nationwide
pollution survey set to start next month.
Data collection will be completed in the first half of the year,
and the information will be analyzed in the second half. In the
first half of 2009, the survey findings will be examined and
approved, the State Environmental Protection Administration said on
Friday.
The results of the survey will not be linked to any punishment
or evaluation of the performance of local administrations, it
said.
The State Council decided to conduct the survey in October last
year in response to complaints from experts about a lack of
reliable statistics on the sources and extent of pollution and the
number of remediation facilities.
In preparation for the campaign, the central government
allocated 737 million yuan (100 million U.S. dollars) in 2007.
China has suffered severe environmental deterioration amid its
rapid economic development. Official statistics show that sulfur
dioxide emissions in 2005 were 27.8 percent higher than in
2000.
Water pollution has been worsening as well: 26 percent of
surface water is totally unusable, 62 percent is unsuitable for
fish and 90 percent of the rivers running through cities are
polluted.
But the country managed to reduce the emission of main
pollutants, sulfur dioxide and chemical oxygen demand (COD), in the
first nine months of 2007.
The energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP)
also dropped three percent year-on-year in the first three quarters
of last year.
(Xinhua News Agency January 5, 2008)
