“Nearly all the rivers have been polluted,” said Sheng Huaren,
vice chairman of the National People’s Congress (NPC)
Standing Committee while delivering a report at a meeting of the
NPC Standing Committee on August 26.
Beginning in May, a law enforcement inspection group was sent by
the NPC Standing Committee to conduct a nationwide inspection in
three areas: solid waste, water pollution and atmosphere pollution
controls.
The above quote from Sheng was his conclusion drawn from the
results of on-the-spot investigation on the Yellow River’s four
tributaries – Weihe, Yanhe, Fenhe and Suhe rivers – all of which
have been seriously polluted.
The main culprits for water quality deterioration are industrial
and residential waste water discharges that were not disposed of
properly to meet certain state standards.
For instance, sewage discharged into the Weihe River in
Shaanxi Province amounts to 600 million tons each year, four
times the river’s environmental capacity; for the Fenhe River which
is honored as Mother River in
Shanxi Province, 66 percent of the water has deteriorated to
Level V, the highest pollution level, while the river water flowing
to the lower reaches beyond Taiyuan, Shanxi’s capital city, has
completely lost its ecological functions.
Besides river pollution, the report shows that solid waste and
atmosphere pollution are at alarming levels.
The inspection group found that the industrial solid waste
accumulation across the country has approached 8 billion tons,
occupying and destroying 2 million mu (about 133,333
hectares) of soil; half of the waste from home in urban areas is
dumped, causing severe ground and surface water pollution.
The report warns that air quality in 40 percent of cities is
below Level II. There are 680 coking plants in Shanxi, of which
only 65 have got an approval for operation from environmental
authorities while only 5 percent of plants discharged de-sulfurized
sulfur dioxide. This has taken its toll on the province – none of
its 11 major cities has achieved Level II or “fairly good” air
quality.
Enterprises’ profits would diminish if they strictly obeyed
environmental laws and regulations, so they choose to challenge
legally binding standards, environmental experts explained. While
environmental assessment has not been effectively linked with the
performance appraisal of governmental officials, there is little
enthusiasm for taking substantial measures to curb pollution.
That’s why polluting events occur frequently in spite of
repeated “environment blasts” launched by SEPA.
For this reason, SEPA called for an urgent amendment of laws and
regulations concerned with environmental protection to ensure the
general responsibility of local governments and avoid their
disturbance in law enforcement.
“Only environmental laws can solve the problems that illegal
activities cost low prices while obeying laws cost higher prices,”
said Yang Chaofei, director of the policy and law department of
SEPA at the International Symposium of Ecological Compensation
Mechanism which opened in Beijing on August 24.
The Law on Environmental Protection in force has not been
amended in 17 years since its promulgation in 1989. “It is
difficult now for the Law to be suitable for the times and present
environmental protection situation,” said Xia Guang, director of
the economy and policy research center of SEPA. Xie led a research
group to conduct field investigations in 20 cities on enforcement
of the Law, and his conclusion was that “it is very urgent to amend
and improve the Law.”
In the retrieved 1,553 questionnaires, over 60 percent
respondents believe it is very hard for the present Environmental
Protection Law to guarantee the responsibility of local government
for environmental quality; 95 percent think it is necessary to
impose more legal responsibility on administrators.
Under the general background of market economy, the law has
shown apparent deficiency in forming an environment supervision
mechanism, according to the research team.
For instance, local environmental protection administrations at
various levels are under dual leadership of SEPA and local
governments. However, since their financial and personnel affairs
are controlled by local governments, work of local environmental
administrations is always affected by local governments.
Additionally, governmental environmental protection functions
are distributed across many departments including environmental
protection, water resources, communication, land and resources and
public security, and communications between these departments are
often stifled. To a great extent, united supervision and
administration, a function of environmental protection departments,
has become a goal instead of a reality.
The 36th article of the Environmental Protection Law stipulates
that enterprises or public institutions that cause environmental
pollution accidents shall be given disciplinary sanctions if the
pollution is severe. This obviously does not go far enough, said
the research group.
Therefore, Xia Guang and other experts suggest making
environmental responsibilities of officials and environment
assessment systems for officials top priorities in the
amendment to the Law on Environmental Protection.
“Amendment of the Law will involve lots of adjustments to a
series of existing laws and regulations concerned with environment
and resources. Up to now, it is still a controversial issue, and
further research need to be done to decide how to amend,” said Mao
Rubai, chairman of the Environmental and Resources Protection
Committee of NPC on August 26, “The committee is losing no time in
doing demonstration and an initial conclusion is expected to be
finished by the beginning of next year.”
(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, September 2, 2006)