China Faces Hard Job to Meet Environmental Protection Standards

There are only half a year left before the deadline set for the discharge of the country's industrial pollutants and the environmental functional zones in major cities to meet the set standards. However, according to the information released by the State Environmental Protection Administration, the progress in meeting set standard for the discharge of industrial pollutants is uneven between eastern and western regions and the situation with respect to meeting set standard by city environmental functioning zones remains very severe, so China still faces a very arduous task of meeting these two required standards.

Reports say that major progress has been made in the work of meeting the set standard for the discharge of the country's main pollutants. By the end of this April, 202,000 out of the 230,000-odd such enterprises have reached the standard, accounting for 85.3 percent. And among the 18,000 main pollution-generating enterprises, 13,259, or 74 percent, which produce 65 percent of the country's industrial pollutants, have hit the targeted standard.

By last March, among the 46 cities placed under major examination, 16 had met the set functional standard in terms of air and surface water quality, representing an increase of two cities over last year. Nevertheless, there are still 26 cities whose air environment and 18 cities whose water environment failed to meet the functional standard.

According to the director of the pollution-control department under the above-said Administration, with respect to meeting the two set standards, there exists the following problem: the lack of sufficient understanding on the part of some local government and enterprise leaders. For example, some local government leaders have the misunderstanding that fulfilling the set targets would hinder local economic growth and lower their financial revenues. So far, 7,278 pollution-generating enterprises haven't taken any action yet.

Besides, the gap between east and west China has further widened. The prospect for meeting set standards by the western region admits of no optimism.

People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/