A Chinese lawmaker on Monday called for an immediate legislation
to blueprint development along the Yangtze River valley with a
focus on curbing ecological deterioration.
"We still face a grave situation in protecting the Yangtze River
though progress has been made in containing ecological and
environmental deterioration along it during the past years," said
Ding Haizhong, a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC)
from Ma'anshan City by the river.
The Yangtze River valley, which has developed into an economic
powerhouse of the country, covers an area of less than one-fifth of
China's land territory, is home to one-third of China's 1.3 billion
population. One-third of the country's grain output and gross
domestic product comes from the valley.
"After more than half a century's hard work, we have achieved
remarkable results in the protection, harnessing and development of
the Yangtze River, but reckless development in some areas and lack
of financial input over the past years have resulted in water
pollution, posing a serious threat to the ecosystem along the
river," he said.
"We must draw out a law on the protection of the Yangtze River
as soon as possible, which concerns the welfare of the more than
400 million people along the valley and the sustainable economic
and social development of the country," said Ding, the top leader
of the city, who is here attending the fourth annual session of the
NPC scheduled to close Tuesday.
On Sunday, a political advisor called on the government to rein
in construction of bridges spanning the longest river of the
country to facilitate shipping between the sea and China's interior
areas.
Jin Yihua, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference, which just concluded
Monday morning, said since the first bridge across the Yangtze was
open to road traffic, 39 bridges have been erected and the number
is expected to reach 124 by the year 2020.
"This means one bridge in less than 30 km across the nearly 3,
000-km-long trunk of the river by that time," said Jin, who is also
director of the Yangtze River Shipping Administration.
The advisor suggested that local authorities build more tunnels
under the river than bridges over it when they make plans to
increase highway transportation.
The government should control the distance between bridges to
more than 80 km over the Yangtze trunk on the middle and upper
reaches starting from Wuhan in central China and that to more than
100 km downstream, he suggested.
The existing bridges that affect shipping should be transformed,
he added.
(Xinhua News Agency March 13, 2006)