Substantial efforts to cut industrial pollution in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region in the past five years have paid off.

Fifteen key industrial enterprises, including a geothermo-powerplant, the Lhasa brewery and a number of cement works which are said to release over 80 percent of the total liquid waste and gas in the region, had met the standards for discharging pollutants set by the autonomous region by 2002, according to Chen Xianshun, director of the regional environmental protection bureau.

Tibet has also closed eight cement production lines, an indigenous oil-refinery, two small iron and steel plants, three small paper-making mills and four borax processing plants, resulting in a significant reduction in industrial pollution.

Meanwhile, the region has also beefed up its efforts to remove pollutants discharged by hospitals and motor vehicles, so as to better protect the safety of the general public.

Statistics show that in 2001, the total amount of discharged liquid waste in the region was reduced by 13.78 million tons when compared with 1998, and the dust released by cement works in Lhasa and its adjacent areas dropped by 18.4 million tons.

Residents in the city of Lhasa, the regional capital, enjoyed fairly good air quality for 357 days last year, 11 days more than the previous year, noted the latest statistics available from the regional environmental protection bureau.

(Xinhua News Agency April 24, 2003)