Balance Between Environment, Economy

A dirty Suzhou Creek, running through China's largest industrial and commercial center Shanghai, has done little to improve the city's environment over the past 80 years.

However, the scenery of the city has improved quite a lot as the creek has turned clear through a comprehensive treatment project.

In the 1920s, the areas along the Suzhou Creek were densely populated by texture, flour, chemistry and paper-making mills. Continual industrial pollution led to a deteriorating ecosystem in and around the creek, which later turned black and gave off an unpleasant odor.

The improvement of the ecological environment in the creek area can be seen from the fact that an increasing number of local citizens like strolling along the river.

Statistics show that with an annual economic growth rate of 12. 3 percent in the 1990s, Shanghai reduced the discharge of industrial waste water by 40 percent due to effective pollution control measures.

The atmospheric content of sulfur dioxide and lithometeor has declined by 50 percent compared to five years ago. The damage of acid rain has also been reduced.

Shanghai's atmospheric quality, measured by the newly enforced state standards, has been rated as first and second-class performance for over 100 days since the standards was introduced last July.

"A good eco-environment is needed for sustainable economic growth, and also for people's welfare," Huang Ju, secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, said.

"To be an international metropolis, Shanghai has to stress environmental protection

According to statistics, a total of 62 billion yuan (US$7.5 billion) were spent in environmental protection in the past decade in Shanghai. Funds for environmental improvement increased from 0.85 percent of the city's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in 1991 to three percent of GDP this year.

Beginning in 1996, the project treating pollution in the Suzhou Creek is the largest environmental protection program in the city, with an investment of 20 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion).

"The river was odorous in the past, making it impossible for residents there to open their windows. It's beyond my expectation to see the river turning clear in my life," Zhu Huifu, a 70 year old man who has lived on the river side for dozens of years, said.

More than a decade ago, there was a large number of chimneys in downtown Shanghai overlooking factories in old buildings in residential quarters. These factories were major polluting source.

The city relocated 1,500 factories to economic and development zones on the outskirts of the city, to make room for non-polluting service industries like finance, trade, commerce and real estate.

The area where the Suzhou Creek is confluent with the Huangpu River is now the trade and financial zone of Shanghai.

The municipal government introduced foreign capital to build 100 million sq. m of houses in the demolished areas. Three million citizens have moved into new houses. The per capita living area there has reached 12 sq. meters in the city. n," Huang noted.

The Shanghai Government has intensified its efforts to abolish energy-consuming industries while stressing the development of six pillar industries of automobiles, telecommunication equipment, power plant equipment, iron and steel, the chemical industry and home-use electric appliances.

In recent years, the city has sped the development of new and hi-tech industries that have lower pollution emission rates, like information, biological medicine and new material, which have accounted for 12.8 percent of the city's GDP.

Environmental improvement has added to the city's economic progress. Approximately 25,000 overseas-funded enterprises have settled in Shanghai, bringing US$46 billion of overseas capital. In the first three quarters of the year, the city's exports exceeded US$20 billion.

Service industries have made up 50 percent of the city's GDP, up from 30 percent in 1990, and the city's per capita GDP is US$4000, or five times that of the nation's average.

Shanghai is implementing a comprehensive sustainable development plan to fine tune industrial and product structures, as it further improves the environment and the city's ecosystem. Many hope that Shanghai will evolve into an international city with a harmonious development of the economy, the society and nature.






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