The State Council announced a decision to further promote
environmental protection on Tuesday but warned the situation "is
still severe."
Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Environmental Protection
Administration (SEPA), explained the
challenge has three elements.
In the first place, environmental pollution has never been so
serious, and will continue to exist for the next 15 years.
Second, polluting incidents have become more frequent, posing a
further threat to the already fragile environment.
Finally, such incidents have frequently touched off social
unrest.
The government document outlines programs for environmental
protection with targets set 15 years in advance.
This document contains concrete measures that will transform the
light rain of the past into a storm of environmental protection
that will wipe out serious polluters.
Regions that are home to heavy polluters that exceed required
standards and cause serious damage will not be given the green
light to start new projects that will strain nature still
further.
The environmental watchdog's assessment will play a greater role
in the procedure, according to the document.
The SEPA has also been given the power to suspend or even end
production at enterprises that continue to discharge pollutants
after being warned.
This will drag the environmental watchdogs at various levels out
of their current embarrassing situation with their notices often
being ridiculed as irrelevant.
To crack the hard nut of local protectionism, which has
constantly been cited as an umbrella for polluters, the State
Council's decision lists achievements in environmental protection
as one of the criteria for the promotion of government officials at
various levels.
Provincial governors, ministers, mayors and county magistrates
will be required to sign papers to shoulder due responsibility for
environmental pollution. Regular assessment will be conducted and
the results made public.
The decision also specifies that provinces in the upper reaches
of rivers must compensate for economic and human losses they cause
in the provinces located in the lower reaches.
These measures, if carried out to the letter, will exert
pressure on officials that overemphasize economic development at
the cost of the environment.
By the year 2010, regions and cities that have been seriously
polluted will have seen their environment greatly improved and the
deterioration of surroundings reversed, according to the targets
set in the official document. In another five years, the country's
environment in general will be improved to an extensive degree.
Even with these concrete measures mapped out by the decision,
bumpy roads and uphill battles are ahead before the rosy picture
painted by the decision is turned into reality.
(China Daily February 16, 2006)