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| Volume 2, issue #18 - 26-06-1997 | |
June 5, 1997 China faces grave pollution problems due to rapid economic development and huge population pressures as government efforts to balance environmental protection with economic growth continue to be greatly weighted toward the latter, a recent governmental report says. "In 1996, pollution continued to develop in the cities, while also spreading throughout the countryside," the 1996 report by China's National Environmental Protection Agency said.
"The Condition of China's Environment" report is required by law to be published annually, with publication normally coinciding with World Environment Day, which falls on June 6.
Although the 17-page report outlines and praises the work of the government in addressing environmental problems, it also brings into question the government's vowed developmental strategy of avoiding the Western mistake of "polluting first and cleaning up later." According to the report, respiratory diseases were the main cause of death in rural areas and the fourth leading
cause in urban areas in 1996 with 1.05 and 0.92 deaths per 1,000, respectively. Meanwhile, deaths from cancer in urban and rural areas were 1.31 and 1.05 per 1,000, respectively, with both respiratory diseases and cancer attributed partially to environmental pollution, it said.
China's air quality has continued to fall well below World Health Organisation (WHO) standards, while up to 70 % of the water in key waterways and lakes met or fell below the lowest Chinese standards for quality, it said. Although total suspended particle emissions dropped from previous years, Chinese cities continued to suffer from an average of 309 micrograms per cubic meter, with some areas registering as high as 618 micrograms per cubic meter, it said. WHO standards for total suspended particulates are set at between 60 and 90 micrograms per cubic meter.
Daily average SO2 readings in 1996 averaged nearly double the WHO standards, with some readings 10 times as high. Chinese industry last year produced some 7.58 million tons
of soot and 5.62 million tons of industrial fly ash, both down about 10 % from the year before, while SO2 industrial emissions remained about the same as 1995 at 13.9 million tons, it said.
SO2, along with nitrogen dioxide, are the chief causes of acid rain. Coal burning, China's major source of energy, is a major source of particulates and SO2.
Water quality in China also continued to be a problem with the Liao, Hai, Yellow and Huai rivers in serious condition, and the Dianchi, Tai, Nansi and Hongze lakes also badly polluted. The Yellow River, China's second largest river and one of its most sickest, was plagued by a series of environmental problems, with only 8 % of the water meeting China's top standards, while some 700 kilometers of the river's lower reaches completely dry for 136 days last year. The water quality in the urban sections of 133 of 138 rivers tested was polluted, with chief pollutants being petroleum and magnesium acids, it said, adding that Chinese lakes continue to be choked by
phosphorous from soaps, detergents and fertilisers and nitrogen from fertilisers.
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