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China to spend $3.3b on river cleanup
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-01-08 14:00
China plans to invest 26.6 billion yuan (US$3.28 billion) to control the
pollution of Songhua River in northwest China in the coming five years.
A stretch of
potentially lethal polluted river water headed towards one of China's
biggest cities on Thursday after an explosion at a petrochemical plant,
November 24 2005. [newsphoto] |
A
conference on water pollution control in Songhua River Valley was held by the
State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) in Harbin, capital of
northwest China's Heilongjiang Province on Saturday, according to a report of
Beijing Youth Daily.
The pollution control efforts will cover the whole
valley of the river, involving a population of 62.55 million in Jilin, Inner
Mongolia and Heilongjiang, said the newspaper.
Protection of drinking
water in large and medium-sized cities is given priority in the pollution
control plan.
More than 90 percent of people living in the valley of
Songhua River are expected to have clean drinking water by the year of 2010,
according to the plan.
China's water pollution problem was underlined in
2005 by chemical spills into the Songhua River, into which tons of cancer-caused
benzene chemicals were spewed following an explosion at a chemical plant.
SEPA officials said that on basis of advanced technology and with the
participation of the whole society, China will put forward a national strategy
in a bid to prevent and treat water pollution and protect water
sources.
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