The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's legislature, has ordered
inspections of the implementation of three environmental protection
laws on solid wastes, water and air pollution after hearing how
pollution is increasingly affecting sustainable development.
Inspection teams will survey progress in Beijing and the
provinces of Shanxi, Hubei, Sichuan and Shaanxi, while ten other provincial people's
congresses are asked to examine local law enforcement in May and
June.
They will focus on water source protection in urban and rural
regions, urban waste water disposal, water pollution prevention and
treatment of rivers near chemical or paper plants, disposal of
solid -- particularly dangerous -- wastes, prevention and control
of air pollution caused by thermal power generation, metallurgy,
cement and chemical industries as well as motor vehicles.
Statistics from the State Environmental Protection
Administration show water pollution is still a serious problem.
Nearly one third of the 744 river sections under state monitoring
are badly polluted and all river sections in cities are
contaminated.
In addition, one fifth of cities have serious air pollution and
150 million mu (10 million hectares) of arable land are affected by
industrial wastes.
At Monday's first plenary session on inspection of environmental
protection laws, Wang Zhaoguo, vice chairman of the NPC Standing
Committee, said the campaign was intended to enhance local
government environmental awareness, to encourage bigger
environmental budgets, improve environmental monitoring and law
enforcement.
Sheng Huaren, vice chairman of the NPC Standing Committee who
heads the campaign, said inspectors would also examine how the
Standing Committee's past suggestions on environmental protection
were implemented.
(Xinhua News Agency May 23, 2006)