Polluting Factories Ordered to CloseEnterprises not meeting national environmental protection standards before the end of this year will be shut down unconditionally, representatives of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) said Tuesday.By the end of June, 210,900 polluting enterprises out of 238,000 - or 88 per cent - in China had met national environmental protection standards. Enterprises in eastern provinces did a better job in reducing pollution than those in the west: 93.4 per cent of polluting enterprises in the east have met the standard, compared to 69.3 per cent in the west, according to a SEPA document. By the end of June, Beijing and Tianjin municipalities and Jiangsu and Shandong provinces had forced 90 per cent of their polluting enterprises to meet national standards, while Chongqing, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces forced only 40 per cent of their polluting enterprises to meet the standard. The SEPA document said most polluting enterprises are traditional State-owned enterprises that lack funds to renovate their production systems. With just five months to go before the December 31 deadline set by the State Council, SEPA said they will conduct several nationwide inspections to supervise polluting enterprises. On the campaign against acid rain and sulfur dioxide, the SEPA circular said progress is being made. Some high-sulfur coal production factories in Jiangxi, Hebei and Fujian provinces have been shut down. In 1999, the amount of high-sulfur coal production was reduced by 32 million tonnes, and the trend is expected to continue. Large factories will be forced to upgrade their production machinery to meet environmental standards. The SEPA circular pointed out that factories in western and southwestern China, where more than 50 per cent of enterprises still use high-sulfur coal in production processes, are far behind the administration's target. SEPA said they will provide technical support to help factories stop their use of high-sulfur coal in the following months. On river protection, the SEPA document said some enterprises closed for pollution reasons have resumed production illegally and continue to pollute nearby rivers. "Huaihe River, Taihu Lake and Chaohu Lake are experiencing strong pollution surges this year," the SEPA document said. It said some cities that should have built water treatment facilities to help reduce pollution in nearby rivers had not done so. "There are just 28 out of the planned 131 water filtrating factories nationwide now under operation," the circular said. |
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