The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) examined the reports on environmental effects of 200 large-scale construction projects in China last year, and rejected a number of those likely to cause serious pollution.

The administration today announced its findings and said the review will be done regularly throughout the year.

China strictly controls the pollution-prone projects in the industries of electric power, iron and steel, petroleum, chemicals, cement and paper-making. Projects that could endanger the environment are not ratified, said Zhu Xingxiang, director of the supervision department under SEPA.

The expansion work to be done at Yanshan Cement Factory in Beijing, a methionine production project in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and a reservoir project on the Minjiang River, a major tributary of the Yangtze River were on the list of those plans rejected for their bad location and serious pollution potential.

As a result of the SEPA review, more than 470,000 tons of chemical oxygen-depleting substances scheduled to be used in the construction projects were eliminated from plans, and 5.38 million tons of industrial dust and 200,000 tons of sulfur dioxide were decreased, said Zhu.

In addition, SEPA also examined environmental protection facilities of 85 projects which involve a total investment of 170billion yuan (US$20 billion).

China began to evaluate projects for their harmful environmental effects in the 1970s, and now requires the designing, building and operating of environmental protection systems in tandem with the overall construction and operation of each project.

(Eastday 02/09/01)