Despite enhanced efforts to protect
the environment and progress made in construction of environmental
projects, the overall picture contains many problems and the
environment still vulnerable.
Vice Minister Zhu Guangyao of the
State Environmental Protection Administration made these remarks at
a press conference sponsored by the State Council Information
Office in Beijing on March 25.
Zhu said the most serious problems
include overutilization of grasslands, serious erosion, severe
pollution in densely populated areas, food safety, reduction and
destruction of biodiversity resulting from the intrusion of alien
species, and the loss of some ecological functions.
The Chinese government considers
environmental preservation and protection very important, said Zhu,
and has set out four principles for carrying out the tasks at hand.
Priority is to be given to prevention and protection;
eco-conservation and eco-development are to be given equal
emphasis; those who exploit and use natural resources will be the
ones who protect and pay for them; and respect must be given to the
laws of nature as well as those of economics, and development must
be scientific.
Three levels of necessary
environmental protection have been defined in order to focus on the
areas that need it most. “Saving protection” is to be employed in
the most damaged areas; “enforced protection” in resource
development zones; and “active protection” in areas that are well
preserved.
The new State of the
Environment: 2003 report, said Zhu, reflects that air
quality reached Grade II in 41.7 percent of all cities, a 7.9
percent improvement from the previous year.
However urban air pollution remained a serious issue.
Zones affected by acid rain remained stable on the whole, but
pollution in some parts of Hunan, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces
worsened.
The pollution of the Haihe, Liaohe,
and Huaihe rivers decreased slightly, but it rose in the Songhua
and Pearl rivers. Offshore pollution in the Yellow Sea grew worse.
Although water quality in the offshore areas of the Bohai and East
China seas improved slightly, pollution there remains serious. The
quality of water in the South China Sea stayed level with the
previous year.
Urban noise pollution was basically under control in 2003,
with more than half of the cities and urban areas enjoying a
reasonably good acoustic environment. Approximately 80 percent of
the cities reported relatively good road traffic acoustic
environmental quality. However, noise pollution remained one of the
environmental problems strongly perceived by urban
residents.
(China.org.cn
March 25, 2004)