Pollution assessment will begin next month
5/1/2008 10:53
The first national survey of pollution sources is to start in February,
the State Environmental Protection Administration said in Beijing
yesterday.
The survey will identify sources of industrial, agricultural
and residential pollution and also calculate the number of environmental
remediation facilities in operation, said Zhou Shengxian, SEPA's director,
during a meeting held by the State Council.
It will take about two months
to collect the data and each piece of information will be reviewed four times
before being entered into the database, he said.
To maintain quality,
random data samples will be checked again. The headquarters of the census has
been established, comprised of officials from SEPA and the Ministry of
Agriculture, which manages agricultural pollution.
Every province,
autonomous region and municipality has also set up an office for the
census.
"The result of the census will not be linked to any punishment or
evaluation of the performance of local administrations," Zhou said. Any
administration, company or institution should not fear repercussions but should
instead guarantee true, credible results, he said.
The country has been
preparing for the census for more than a year. The central government allocated
737 million yuan (US$100 million) in 2007.
The government is taking
numerous measures to reduce pollution, but experts have complained about a lack
of trustworthy statistics on the sources and extent of pollution.
Xinhua
|
