June 14, 2007

China issues stiff regulations to clean up lakes and reservoirs

China is tightening up its environmental laws on lakes and reservoirs after environmental pollution and accidents cost the country an estimated US$ 37 million last year. 

China's environmental protection agency estimated that pollution cost the country RMB 36.4 million (US$4.77 million) last year.

The Ministry of Agriculture and State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) came up with the estimate after inspections at 96 major fisheries.

Meanwhile, more than a thousand pollution accidents in fishery areas last year resulted in direct losses of RMB 243 million (US $31.8 million), the agency said.

SEPA said it would launch a full-scale ecological evaluation of all lakes and reservoirs this month and draw up treatment plans for each, said Zhang Lijun, deputy director of the SEPA.

The stricter monitoring comes after water supplies from Taihu Lake, the third largest lake in the nation, was cut off due to an algae bloom believed to have been caused by pollution.

Zhang said the agency intends to tighten environmental regulations to match those of developed countries and promised that industrial projects discharging nitrogen and phosphorous would be banned from the area.

It is not known how fish farms would be affected by the move.

The country will also dedicate resources in the coming four years to treat pollution in major rivers, lakes, reservoirs, the Bohai Sea and the Songhua River, Zhang said.