China will invest billions of yuan in a study on water
pollution, a sign that the country is facing up to its chronic
water problems.
Currently 90 percent of rivers running through cities are
polluted, and more than 300 million rural residents have to drink
unqualified water.
The study, the biggest of its kind in the country, will run for
15 years and will look into drinkable water security, environmental
improvement of river basins and urban water pollution
treatment.
"Scientific and technological breakthroughs in a key field such
as water pollution control will help upgrade the scientific and
technological level as a whole," said Zhou Shengxian, minister of
State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA). SEPA, the
country's top environment watchdog, will lead the project.
The plan was released at the Environmental Science and
Technology Conference held in Beijing on Friday and Saturday.
"Realization of the target of a 10 percent reduction of
pollution emissions in the next five years depends on scientific
and technological progress," Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan said in a congratulatory letter to
the conference. "Innovation of science and technology should be
stressed in environmental protection."
The conference also saw the establishment of the country's
largest environment think tank, which will merge the State
Environmental Advisory Council and the Scientific and Technological
Committee of SEPA, in total over 80 top environmental
scientists.
"Currently scientific and technological development does not
serve the nation's environmental protection cause well," Zhou
said.
"Environment enforcement and policy-making lacks scientific
support. Many important decisions have been made without full
research. Some basic figures about the environment are missing due
to a lack of key research projects."
The Ministry of Science and Technology will work closely with
SEPA on environmental science and technology development, according
to Vice Minister Liu Yanhua.
Environmental destruction causes the country economic losses of
about 5 percent of its gross domestic products each year, according
to Liu.
(China Daily August 21, 2006)