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'River thaw not to cause new pollution'
By Zhang Feng (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-13 05:33
Russian and Chinese experts have concluded the thaw of the frozen Songhua
River, where a severe toxic chemical spill happened last year, will not cause
pollution again this spring, a top official said in Beijing.
The conclusion, made by nearly 1,000 experts after complicated tests and
analysis in the past days, said that fish in the river and dairy products made
by farms along the river can be eaten safely, said Zhou Shengxian, director of
the State Environmental Protection Administration, on Saturday.
Zhou Shengxian,
director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, speaks at a
news conference in Beijing March 11, 2006.
[newsphoto] | "I am very happy to hear that the conclusion of the supervision tests made by
the Russian side is completely the same to ours.
"The final conclusion is that this spring, the Songhua River will not have a
second incident of pollution," he said at a news conference during the annual
session of China's parliament.
A blast at a PetroChina chemical factory on November 13, 2005, in Northeast
China's Jilin Province, spewed at least 100 tonnes of toxic benzene into the
river.
It formed an 80 kilometre-long slick, which slowly moved downstream as the
river was icing, leaving 4 million people in Harbin, the capital city of
Heilongjiang Province, without tap water for days.
The toxic slick reached neighbouring Russia in the middle of December,
causing great concern over the safety of drinking water.
Many people have been worried about more pollution problems as the ice of the
river begins to melt in warmer weather.
Water tests in Russia revealed the pollution presented no danger to people,
Russian officials have been quoted by agencies as saying.
Zhou also revealed that the Chinese Government is making major efforts to
avoid similar pollution incidents in the future caused by those chemical
factories located along rivers and lakes.
China has more than 21,000 chemical enterprises and factories. At least half
of them are built along the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, two "mother
rivers" of China.
"The result would be terrible if incidents happened in these factories," Zhou
told reporters.
A national investigation on these factories was carried out before the end of
January.
The problems have been caused by China's rapid economic development, which
has sometimes been at the expense of environmental protection, Zhou said.
"It is impossible to solve these problems overnight," he said.
His predecessor, Xie Zhenhua, resigned after the Songhua incident.
New guidelines have since been drawn up that clearly specifies the
objectives, tasks and policy measures for environmental protection in the
future.
The ability to protect the environment will become a vital measure as to
whether officials at various levels are qualified or not in their roles, the
guidelines state.
In 2005, nearly 30,000 environmental infringement cases were investigated and
sanctioned. Among them, 2,609 enterprises were suppressed or closed down, and
more than 300 people punished.
Top Chinese leaders, including Premier Wen Jiabao, have promised at the
annual session that China is devoted to building an energy-saving and
environment-friendly society in the coming five years and beyond.
The previous ignorance in environmental protection has made China pay a lot
in the past several years. In the first four years of the State's 10th Five-Year
Plan period (2001-05), China invested a total of 600.6 billion yuan (US$72.3
billion) in pollution prevention and control.
(China Daily 03/13/2006 page2)
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