A campaign jointly launched by seven government departments to
guarantee the safety of source water has encountered obstacles.
The campaign launched last July, sought to ban sewage outlets at
all source water protection areas by the end of 2006.
Seven government departments, including the State Environmental
Protection Administration (SEPA), the Ministry of Supervision and
the National Development and Reform Commission, joined forces in
the campaign, determined to crack down on illegal enterprises that
pollute source water.
However, Sichuan Province in southwest China postponed the
deadline to the end of this year, and some provinces have not even
completed the first-phase of defining source water protection
areas, Beijing-based Legal Daily quoted a SEPA official as
saying.
Leshan and Neijiang, two cities in Sichuan, said the work of
defining source water protection areas was only completed at the
end of last year.
"How were we supposed to move all sewage outlets in 2006 when
the task of defining protection areas was only completed at the end
of the year?" Tang Yifan, deputy director of Leshan environmental
protection bureau, was quoted as saying.
Tang said even though Sichuan is a year behind schedule, it was
still ahead of other provinces in the country.
Xiong Yuehui, deputy director of SEPA's environment supervision
department, said some provinces were still in the middle of
defining protection areas, while others, like Gansu and Ningxia,
have not even started.
He said the situation is "complicated", as there is no State
standard for defining source water protection areas.
However, it showed local environmental protection departments
had failed, to some extent, to fulfil their duties, he said.
"It shows that an embarrassing situation does exist where
government orders on environmental protection are difficult to be
implemented at local levels," Xiong said.
(China Daily June 15, 2007)