Chongqing Uses Foreign Funds To Improve EnvironmentSouthwest China's Chongqing Municipality started two projects involving 5.5 billion yuan (662. 2 million U.S. dollars) to improve its urban environment.Xinhua learned that more than 50 percent of the total investment has come from the World Bank and the Japanese Government. The Chongqing urban environment project, funded by the World Bank, is aimed at disposing waste water in Chongqing and in the Three Gorges Reservoir area. The Sino-Japanese urban environmental pilot program will focus on air pollution in the city. By he end of last year, only 27.8 percent of the city's major polluting industrial enterprises discharged waste water according to state requirements. Only 8.27 percent of the city's domestic waste water was treated. The annual economic losses caused by air pollution was 1 billion yuan (120 million U.S. dollars). Upon completion, the two projects will help reduce discharged sulfur dioxide by 195,000 tons annually and carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon by 20,000 tons. The economic loss caused by air pollution will be reduced by 300 million yuan (36.14 million U.S. dollars) annually. |
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