About one-fifth of the coastal waters near south China's Guangdong Province are polluted by industrial and domestic sewage, says a government report.

The 2007 Guangdong Oceanic Environment Quality report said 9,300 square kilometers of the shore had been polluted to some degree.

The area accounts for 18.6 percent of the province's total inshore area. The Pearl River Delta was the worst affected, according to the report released on Friday. The delta is densely populated and economically developed.

Pollution has also caused a sharp decline of fishery resources in the coastal waters of the Dayawan Bay area, the report said.

Figures from the Guangdong Environmental Protection Bureau showed the province dumped 6.9 billion tons of sewage into the sea last year. But the report also said progress had been made in pollution treatment.

Among 101 monitored drainage sites near the sea, 50 percent still had sewage with pollutants exceeding target levels, compared with 75 percent in 2006.

The waste mainly came from power, leather, chemical and paper plants.

(Xinhua News Agency September 7, 2008)