Lawmakers, Advisors Concerned about Environment

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, March 11, 2002

Lawmakers, Advisors Concerned about Environment

China's top legislators and advisors have showed great concern over environmental protection in the country.

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China's top legislators and advisors have showed great concern over environmental protection in the country.

The legislators and advisors are in Beijing, attending the annual sessions of the legislative National People's Congress (NPC) and the advisory National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Ye Wenhu, a CPPCC member and a professor with the sustainable development research center of Beijing University, said that a fundamental way for China to solve the environment issue is to get the whole nation involved in the environmental protection drive. Environmental protection will not be be achieved by relying only on the government, said Zhu Tan, a NPC deputy and a professor with Nankai University who has engaged in environmental research for more than 30 years.

He said, participation of the general public and social institutions plays a key role in meeting the targets of environmental protection.

Environmental protection has become an issue which catches the attention of almost everybody in China. A recent nationwide survey shows that 98 percent of the Chinese people are concerned about environmental protection, and most of them have participated in the drive; 48 percent of the respondents said that the general public play a leading role in protecting the environment.

The survey also shows that young people have stronger awareness of environmental protection than people of other age groups. China has named more than 3,000 "gree schools" -- those that have contributed a good deal to environmental protection, according to the survey.

Moreover, there have been reports saying that a group of primary school students sued an enterprise for polluting the environment, a rich village invested 60 million yuan (7.22 million U.S. dollars) to build a waste water treatment plant, and citizens evaluated polluting enterprises. There are now nearly 2,000 non-state-owned environmental protection institutions in China.

Environmental protection is a job that can not be completed in a single day, said Liang Congjie, a CPPCC member and a leading member of the "Friends of the Nature", the first non-governmental organization engaged in environmental protection in China. "It is like tidying up the house that needs to be done every day," Liang said.

Established eight years ago, the organization now has more than 1,000 members.

Liang said that the involvement of the general public in environmental protection can effectively supervise the implementation of relevant laws and curb illegal activities in this regard.

Some CPPCC members held that China's environmental protection needs the joint efforts of the government, enterprises and the general public.

Collaboration between the three forces can guarantee the realization of the targets for creating a better life for the people, good performance of enterprises and a sound ecological environment in the country, they said.

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