EcoSeed
written by Karl Go
Thursday February 11, 2010 06:29
The Chinese government has completed the country’s first national pollution census as part of its efforts to curb environmental deterioration as a result of rapid economic expansion.
At a press conference held on Tuesday at the State Council Information Office, Zhang Lijun, vice minister of environmental protection, said the census was a significant survey of the national situation, providing 1.1 billion items of basic data on pollution sources in the country.
He added that a database was also established, covering data from six million objects of industrial, agricultural and residential sources of pollution as well as centralized pollution control facilities. The database will be used as a guide for administration and policy-making decisions.
The census showed that China’s wastewater discharge totaled more than 209 billion tons in 2007, while waste gas emissions topped 63.7 trillion cubic meters.
Industrial pollutant discharges were also found to be mainly concentrated in a small number of industries and areas with prominent structural problems.
Agriculture as top water polluter
Agriculture was shown to be a major factor in water pollution, with 43 percent of the country’s 30 million tons of chemical oxygen demand coming from agricultural sources.
Chemical oxygen demand is a test that determines the amount of organic pollutants found in surface water, making it a measure of water quality and a major water pollution indicator.
Mr. Zhang said that controlling pollution from agricultural sources was essential to solving China’s water pollution problem.
Wang Yanliang, an officer with the Ministry of Agriculture, said that steps are being made to alleviate the situation.
As livestock and poultry represent major sources of agricultural pollution, the Ministry is working to help poultry and breeding farms develop methane digesters.
The number of rural households using biogas in China hit 30.5 million in 2008, Mr. Wang added.
He also mentioned that measures will be taken to limit the waste discharged from rural areas and improve the efficiency of agriculture chemicals.
Free formula fertilization services would also be provided to 160 million rural households in 2010.
The pollution census took more than two years to complete, with 570,000 staff and about $100 million allocated to the project.
China’s State Council made the decision to undergo the census in 2006 after environmental experts suggested that trustworthy statistics on pollution sources and extant was essential to the development of a long-term plan for pollution prevention and control.
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