China saw a further strengthening of its environmental protection work in 1999, but the environmental situation is still serious on the whole, the State Bureau of Statistics said in a bulletin Monday.

By the end of 1999, China's environmental protection sector was employing 116,000 persons, of which 36,000 were working in 2,111 environmental monitoring stations nationwide.

The country had 1,146 nature reserves with a total area of 88.13 million hectares at the end of 1999, accounting for 8.8 percent of its territory.

A total of 154 units have joined the experiment for the construction of biological model areas.

Legislation on environmental protection and law enforcement made new improvement in 1999.

By the end of 1999, China had adopted 426 pieces of environmental standards.

More than 90 percent of the new construction projects approved in 1999 carried out environmental impact evaluation work, while 95percent of the projects operational in 1999 has pollution control facilities.

The country completed 12,010 environmental control projects in 1999. Investment for them exceeds 7.1 billion yuan.

By the end of 1999, 536 cities nationwide had established 2,364smoke and dust control areas totaling 16,000 square kilometers, and 431 cities established 2,040 noise control areas covering 8,975 square kilometers.

Pollution control projects continued in major river valleys and areas in 1999.

Nearly 300 million yuan were spent on pollution control projects in 144 factories each with a daily discharge of 100 tons or more waste water in the Chaohu Lake area.

Similarly, 223 million yuan were spent on pollution control projects in 109 factories in the Dianchi Lake area in Yunnan Province.

Thanks to the efforts, industrial wastes discharged by factories in the two areas have met control standards and water quality in the two lakes have improved, the bulletin said.

By the end of November 1999, 68.04 billion yuan had been spent on a nationwide waste control program and a major afforestation program, resulting in the completion of 525 projects.

However, the bulletin said the environmental situation for the country as a whole is still severe, as pollution by agricultural production and residents is still serious, the range of biological destruction is still expanding, and biological destruction is worsening in some areas.