Chongqing pollution crackdown
14/5/2007 9:45
Chongqing, the biggest industrial city on the upper reaches of the Yangtze
River, will spend 430 million yuan (US$56.01 million) in harnessing water
pollution caused by vessels.
During the 11th Five-Year-Plan period
(2006-2010), the municipal government will target flowing pollution - sewage,
oil-tainted water and solid trash - from ships and boats, said a spokesman from
the Municipal Commission of Communications.
"All newly built ships should
discharge according to required standards, while old boats are required to
undergo a technical overhaul so that the discharge of carbon dioxide and
hydrocarbons will be lowered drastically to meet the standards for discharging
before the year 2010," said the spokesman.
"Operators who fail to meet
the standards for discharge will not allowed to ply the Three Gorges Reservoir
and violators will be punished severely."
Each year, more than 100,000
ships and boats ply the Three Gorges Reservoir, of which 30,000 navigate and
stop by Chongqing.
An estimate by the local environmental protection
department shows that passing ships and boats leave behind 42,000 tons of trash,
seven million tons of manure, 15 million tons of sewage and more than a million
tons of oil-tainted water each year.
Xinhua
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