China to Reduce 10% Pollutant Discharge in Four Years

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, January 28, 2002

China to Reduce 10% Pollutant Discharge in Four Years

By the end of the 10th "Five-Year" Plan, China will see the gross volume of main pollutants reduced by 20 percent from that of the year 2000.
It marks that a transition from discharging volume control to discharging volume reduction has been taken as a part of the strategic targets for environmental protection project in China.

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By the end of the 10th "Five-Year" Plan, China will see the gross volume of main pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide, industrial solid waste, oxygen needed for chemical reaction, ammonia and nitrogen, smoke dirt and industrial dust reduced by 20 percent from that of the year 2000.

Tasks Mapped out in 10th 5-Year Plan

According to the 10th "Five-year Plan" for National Environmental Protection recently published by State Environmental Protection Administration, the main tasks for environmental protection in this period are to reduce by 20 percent the discharging volume of sulfur dioxide from that of 2000 in pollution-control areas affected by acid rain and sulfur dioxide, thus basically abating the "virulent five" indexes of sectional water quality in key pollution-control valleys.

The environment situation, such as the quality of air and surface water in medium and large cities will be largely improved.

Strategy of Pollutant Discharging Volume Control

As sources say, China adopted pollutant discharging volume control strategy for environmental protection in the past, i.e., to keep the gross volume of pollutant discharge under control at a certain ratio.

For instance, during the ninth "Five-Year" Plan period China set the target to keep the discharging volume of main pollutants within the bounds of that at the end of the eighth "Five-Year" Plan period by 2000.

Thanks to the indefatigable efforts of various circles, the gross discharging volume of main pollutants in 2001 did not break the bounds set for the end of eighth "Five-Year" Plan period with the GDP up by over 8 percent annually.

Strategy of Pollutant Discharging Volume Reduction

Confidence in Fulfillment

Person in charge of the State Environmental Protection Administration expressed his full confidence in fulfilling the target of reducing the discharging volume of main pollutants by 10 percent.

It is relatively easy to reduce the discharging volume of five main pollutants, namely, oxygen needed for chemical reactions, smoke dirt, industrial dust, ammonia and nitrogen and industrial solid wastes, he said. In spite of the difficulties in reducing the discharging volume of sulfur dioxide, the country will vigorously promote the development of desulfurizing techniques so as to ensure the fulfillment of the planned target.

'China Green Projects Program'

To match with the goal, China's State Environmental Protection Administration drew up programs of key projects for the implementation of "China Green Projects Program" (second phase).

The program includes 1,137 items, involving a total of RMB 262 billion-yuan in investment.

Circles Encouraged by Achievements

Experts pointed out that the major achievements made in the past had vigorously encouraged the circles.

As sources say, during the ninth "Five-Year" Plan period, China altogether banned and shut down more than 84,000 small enterprises which produced severe pollutants with no hope to be harnessed. Over 90 percent of industrial enterprises reached the standard for main pollutants discharging.

Progressive achievements have been made in key areas, thereby laying a solid foundation for the practice of the 10th "Five-Year" Plan as set for National Environmental Protection.

Pollution Cleaning of Enterprises of Prefectural (& above) Level

Item	Unit	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999
Waste water
industrial discharge volume	100m ton	221.9	205.9	188.3	171.2	160.8
industrial disposal rate	%	76.8	81.7	84.7	88.2	91.1
standard rate of industrial discharge	%	55.4	59.1	61.8	67.0	72.1
Waste gas
handling rate of smoke, dust from fuel burning	%	89.7	90.0	90.4	91.5	90.4
purifying rate	%	70.8	75.0	79.4	79.9	82.6
sulfur dioxide discharge	10,000 ton	1405	1364	1363	1210	1078
industrial soot discharge	10,000 ton	838	758	685	680	557
industrial dust discharge	10,000 ton	639	562	548	506	458
Industrial solid waste
discharge	10,000 ton	2242	1690	1549	1821	1154
utilization rate	%	42.9	43.0	45.6	48.3	51.7
Economic benefits of comprehensive utilization
output value of products of waste utilization	100m y	203.6	224.8	208.4	236.4	218.0
profits	100m y	52.7	44.8	43.6	44.3	46.5

Source From Report of Environmental Protection Work During Ninth Five-Year Plan Period

By PD Online staff member Du Minghua

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