Industrialisation worsens further China’s environment

24 May, 2007: The environment in China is deteriorating and several major rivers and lakes are clogged by industrial waste.

Pollution has worsened in many parts of China in the first quarter of 2007 according to nationwide monitoring results, the state media quoted Pan Yue, vice-minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) as saying in a quarterly assessment posted on the ministry’s website www.zhb.gov.cn

Pan also said the situation of Taihu Lake and Chaohu Lake in east China and Dianchi Lake in Yunnan province in the south-west have dramatically changed.

The quality of drinking water in cities monitored by the State Environmental Protection Administration deteriorated between January and March 2007, with 69.3% rated as ‘qualified’ – 5 percentage points lower than the same period in 2006.

While China’s communist leaders have repeatedly promised a clean-up, they say that they are constrained by the need to promote economic growth and by a lack of technology.

The comments on the worsening environmental situation coincided with the United Nations marking the International Biodiversity Day with the signing of five joint grant agreements with the European Union and the Chinese government.

The United Nations grant agreements signed include a plan to integrate environmental assessments into mining and tourism development plans in Sichuan province and a project focusing on biodiversity conservation in Yunnan province.

China has been struggling to change its priorities from growth at all costs to more sustainable development, driven in part by worries that environmental degradation could compromise the economic rise on which the ruling Communist Party has staked its legitimacy, according to Reuters.

But the central government’s efforts have been defeated by the swift growth of industry and by local officials who stand to gain from investments in industry in their regions.

According to the State Environmental Protection Administration, despite efforts to change priorities, the situation is not improving. In some cities, foul air emissions exceed acceptable limits.

Worsening air and water pollution and frequent use of food additives and pesticides made cancer the top killer in China in 2006, the state media has reported, citing health experts.

Water quality in the Songhua River in the north-east, site of a major chemical spill in 2005, as well as the Huaihe River, which runs north of the Yangtze, has deteriorated, according to the SEPA.

The Yangtze basin is now one of the most polluted rivers in the world because of decades of heavy industrialisation was well as accumulation of sediment from land conversion.