Renewed focus on ecology
By Wang Hui (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-06-12 09:54

A friend of mine, a native of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, expressed disappointment during a recent conversation about the environmental crisis in the Tuojiang River, which runs through his hometown.

"When I was young the river was very limpid and full of various kinds of fish," he said.

However, when my friend returned in the 1990s, the river was no longer clean although some resilient fish did manage to survive in the foul water. Pollutants discharged from factories and residential areas along the river had turned the water deep green and given it a disagreeable odor.

Sadly, the Tuojiang River, which feeds China's main shipping artery, the Yangtze, was dealt another heavy blow in February and March when a nearby chemical plant dumped lethal waste water containing synthetic ammonia and nitrogen into the Wenjiang section of its upper reaches.

After the tragedy was exposed by media in late March, the once obscure tributary became the focus of nationwide attention. The serious pollution allegedly affected 1 million people, blackened the water and killed an estimated 60,000 kilograms of aquatic life.

The government was quick to root out the perpetrators, who have been punished either by administrative measures or by law. Meanwhile the plant was heavily fined.

However, the ecosystem in the river basin may never be restored, my friend sighed bitterly.

I could easily understand his sadness. I was raised in my hometown, a beautiful place in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, where the Hanjiang River is within a comfortable distance. The river has left an indelible mark in my memory with its ample and refreshing water that seemed to extend to the horizon in my youthful eyes.

Regrettably, that tantalizing scene no longer exists because continuous damage done by human activities narrowed the river course and devastated its vegetation.

The plights of the Tuojiang and Hanjiang rivers mirror a dilemma that most of China's water systems are still facing today.

Some equate the situation to the inevitable price a country must pay to develop. There may be some truth in that, but it should no longer be used as a ready excuse for continuing our ignorance of environmental protection. After all, the country has paid too dear a price for sacrificing environment for economic benefits.

Recent years have witnessed so many environmental woes that they may require the efforts of generations to rectify. And some of the damage may never be remedied.

Worsening air quality, dwindling water resources, increasing acreage of barren lands, desert expansion and frequent sand storms are just a few of the scourges that threaten people's health and dampen our efforts to create a better world for all.

Given the seriousness of the country's environmental troubles, it was no surprise that last month when a piece of false news identifying Beijing as one of the world's least-habitable cities barely caused a stir.

Still, a piece of credible news should make everyone shudder. Niu Wenyuan, an expert with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, revealed late last month that about 18 per cent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) has been achieved at the expense of excessive exploitation of resources and ecological degradation.

If we do not re-examine our concept of development and make timely adjustments that shore up environmental concerns, we may not be able to leave a sustainable world to our future generations.

Admittedly, awareness about environmental protection has been on the rise among the public and government officials. The country has made strenuous efforts to check the worsening tendency of environmental degradation in the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000).

Since then, much has been done to make the air fresher, the sky bluer and rivers less polluted. Take air pollution as an example. More and more cities, though at a slow pace, are meeting air quality standards set by the State. Official statistics indicate 142 of the 340 monitored cities, or 41.7 per cent, saw their air quality reach the national standard - an increase of 7.9 percentage points from 2002.

Now a resident of Beijing, I am grateful for the steadily improving air quality in the city. The long-time-no-see blue skies and fresh air have come back and days with good air quality are accumulating on an annual basis.

In a mandate made public on Monday,municipal authorities urged 28 heavy polluters to further lower their emissions so that citizens can have more fresh-air days this year.

However, against this rosy picture, there is the worrisome phenomenon that while some achievements have been made, new problems continue to crop up.

This may shed light on the annual report on environmental conditions issued by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), the country's environmental watchdog. For three consecutive years since 2001, the report has used similar wording to describe the overall situation as being basically at the same level of the previous year. This should not mask the truth that the hard-won achievements accumulated throughout the year to better our environment have been offset by newly emerged hurdles.

Condition of the nation's major rivers, as described in the SEPA report, offers another explanation for this dilemma. Among the country's seven major rivers, pollution in the Haihe, Liaohe and Huaihe waterways slightly lessened, while the Songhua River and the Pearl River were even more polluted.

As pointed out by many, insufficient funding from the government, slackened awareness, weak law enforcement and a lenient approach to punishment in deterring wrongdoers have all added to the difficulty in making greater strides in environmental protection.

 Take the Tuojiang case as an example. The polluter was fined 1 million yuan (US$120,000). This certainly will do little to deter followers, neither will it remedy the huge direct economic loss estimated to be 300 times the amount of the penalty.

Nonetheless, it is the government's recent call for a scientific approach to development and the promotion of a circular economy that has prescribed a cure for rooting out the crux of our country's environmental problems.

It is an undeniable fact that human activities now pose the greatest challenge to our environment. Hence, to protect the environment, we human beings should change our way of thinking and style of living.

A scientific conception of development stresses development should be comprehensive, co-ordinated and sustainable instead of purely in pursuit of GDP growth while a circular economy advocates the most efficient use of resources and the most effective protection of the environment.

We need to both adjust our route to development and elevate our activities and behaviours to the standards that will facilitate environment conservation.

With the scientific perspective of development taking root in people's hearts and crystallizing in their voluntary actions, I hope not only the Tuojiang and Hanjiang rivers but our entire ecosystem will one day take on a whole new look.

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