Factories along China's Huaihe River and around Taihu Lake will have to obtain permits before they discharge waste into the river and lake, the country's environmental agency announced on Wednesday. 

The regulations are aimed at improving the water quality in the Huaihe and Taihu, which are on the country's most polluted list, according to a statement from the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

Factories to be given permits will be strictly regulated in terms of type, volume and density of the discharged pollutant, and when, how and where the waste is to be discharged.

A SEPA official said that a first round of permits will be issued to 5,372 factories and plants along the river and around Taihu.

The factories and plants receiving the permits account for 16 percent of applications. But these factories are also responsible for 82 percent of the total volume of discharged waste. Further, their discharge accounts for 86 percent of COD and 80 percent of NH3-N, two kinds of major pollutants, present in the total volume of discharged waste.

The official said that with the establishment of the permit system, the waste discharged into the river and lake will be cut by 10 percent annually.

The SEPA has issued a work program to implement the system, which stipulates measures for supervision and penalties.

"The permit system will be implemented nationwide after we have gained some experience from the Huaihe and Taihu program," the official said.

The Huaihe, one of the longest rivers in China, runs through Henan, Shandong, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces in central and east China, and the Taihu is the third largest freshwater lake in China.

(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2005)