[CND, 03/11/01] An NPC member promised that the water pollution problems arising from the huge Three Gorges dam project can be under control, the South China Morning Post reported on Saturday.
QU Geping, former chief of the State Environmental Protection Administration, stated that the government was attempting to block the flow of sediment and industrial pollution into the dam.
He said that the government is considering plans to deal with
pollution from the upstream areas. We will be able to address this
issue,
he added.
Critics claim that the heavy loads of silt carried by the Yangtze will be trapped in the huge dam and the reservoir will be polluted. The controversial dam will cost US$24.65 billion when it is finished in 2009.
Plans to fight pollution include shutting down 7,000 factories along the upper stream of the river. Other firms causing water pollution will have to be upgraded.
Water treatment facilities with a capacity to process three million tons per day are being built near Chongqing.
The government will also try to stabilize rice paddies along the river banks of the Yangtze to control soil erosion.
Speaking on the sidelines of the annual NPC session, Qu revealed that in the last five-year plan, the central and local governments had spent about 360 billion yuan in total to fight pollution.
He pointed out that the money could double during the current five-year plan from 2001 to 2005.
There were still problems to address, he said. Four out of 10 rivers in China were polluted and one in 10 were extremely polluted, he said. Another serious problem was air pollution. Tap water prices might be higher in the future to encourage conservation, he added. (ZHOU Haosheng)
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