Central News Agency (Taiwan)
August 29, 2006

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress used the word ‘shocking’ to describe the pollution problem in China in a recent environmental report, Xinhua says.

Taipei: Xinhua News Agency has reported that the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress used the word “shocking” to describe the pollution problem in mainland China in a recent environmental investigation report. After months of investigation, on August 26, the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress announced the release of its environmental law enforcement and inspection report. They used the phrases like “all the rivers are dry and all the waters are polluted,” “acid rain,” “the heavy pollution is shocking” and “enterprises secretly discharge waste and their deception is very serious” to describe the gravity of the pollution problem. It was reported that starting in May, the law enforcement and inspection group of the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress went to cities in Sichuan, Hubei and five other provinces to conduct inspections to understand the environmental protection situation. The group also authorized the People’s Congresses from cities and regions in Tianjin, Liaoning and ten other provinces to conduct local inspections. Sheng Huaren, Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, said that this was a comprehensive and overall inspection on Chinese environmental protection. The purpose was to supervise and inspect the State Council and relevant departments to see if they had implemented the suggestions from the National People’s Congress.

In terms of water pollution, the pollution spanning over five kilometers of the Wei River has been gradually intensifying and the water quality is recorded as substandard by the time it enters into the Yangtze River. In addition, through monitoring the section where a Yangtze River tributary meets the Yan River, it was discovered that 40 percent of water in that section has become substandard quality in five aspects. The Fen River has been called the Mother River of Shanxi, but in the monitored areas, much of the water is below standard quality and after passing through Taiyuan City, it shows no ability to sustain life. Enterprises and the industry are partly responsible for the pollution by releasing toxic and harmful industrial waste material like chromium, which can threaten the safety of headwaters. Despite the enterprises’ re-organization and merging, they have not decreased the amount of pollutants released. In 2005, one department from the State Council developed a comprehensive chromium management plan consisting of a total of 43 projects to manage the suspected 4.1 million tons of chromium. However, only 173,000 tons of chromium have been disposed since, which is a mere four percent of the total detailed in the plan.