Guangdong reaches pollution control target

Latest statistics from the State Environmental Protection Administration of
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China (SEPA) indicate that index for the discharge of sulfur dioxide and 5z0W8w*m(p/Te k9V

5F]s.t'?/Y8h3Wb chemical oxygen demand (COD), the two major pollutants, in Guangdong Province ^iAH]2aD~
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have reduced by 2.1 percent and 0.9 percent in 2006 compared with those in 9S:IL)K(l3|
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2005.
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This was revealed on Monday by Li Qing, director, Guangdong Provincial !vLx/w\

(_7zONH:E3l F Environmental Protection Bureau and which showed the province has achieved its
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U8xA6Isa J.U{ goal for 2006. The achievement was made in sharp contrast to the nation's
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/S2vG"VGB#x? performance that failed to reach its goal set early 2006 to save energy and
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a[!`uO(ys4V reduce pollution discharge.tbu0b9LV

9h|K&Ea Li attributed the progress to the works his bureau had done in the previous T
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y9NmvZ1U ySS)h years. As early as in 2003, the provincial government and SEPA jointly worked a5l'X&x(L l IfsCzI

3pDncez out an environmental protection plan for the Pearl River Delta and the province !t,_(Pq `&{
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as well. The harnessing work of the Pearl River started in 2002 and many sewage
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fS/G treatment plants and desulphurization projects of power generation plants were /a#F%dS"q)a8i

}J{5h!J9h started in 2002. b$o;y6k0IV;\9I}
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These efforts have laid down an important foundation to bring down the amount M/t v;Q#x
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of pollutants discharged in the province last year, Li said.B-VQZ}L1jf+M+O$r7d
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"The task (to save energy and reduce pollution discharge) in the coming years
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will be really enormous," Li said.?D1ZFtrzjR

Q5H+a-l jN He pointed out that since the province boasts large economic strength and a X5_5Jr_&w1BW
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rapid growth, plus its way of growth has not been changed fundamentally, it is RZ*_7Ay:Eh~gv{
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very difficult for the province to reach the goal of reducing SO2 and COD by 15

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0A$T[[%L5|NWE percent during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2001-10) period.]"v0}8toQ.w"P1b!o)f
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The situation worsened as the air quality in the Pearl River Delta was gHN9n,Qk
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partially deteriorating. The province also needs to strengthen the protection of m6];rm6cj&~
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water pollution in the mountainous regions and eastern and western parts of the `(z ic|$caHH
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province.;v$R%|%b4\&F gJ,P
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Li said the province would strictly control the discharge of pollutants from
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+`:bf({.NX1}Pny#K its origins and speed up the construction of sewage treatment plants and .b_Nk.r$}

7u"v!m6gR desulphurization projects to reduce total amount of pollutant discharge.
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"To provide strong technical support to the control of pollution discharge,
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plants and power generation plants and set up an automatic monitoring system on )n }L:v rY
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the information of pollution discharge," Li said.*H^$i*Sg

,X&f,{r5?!f*n6L According to the plan, the new environmental monitoring and control center,
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]u%Mh%aIh"_2q2? upon its completion, will become a leading command center in China. It will %f,o_8A3A
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cover five regions of Guangzhou, Shantou, Shenzhen, Maoming and Shaoguan in the g+M2\ ](v5K K
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province.
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According to Li, Guangdong will invest 2.3 billion yuan ($295 million) in
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N&Fr2_\a0\M^ building an environmental supervision pre-alarming system during the 2006-10
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*jz2he;PkE6BL;` period.
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1Xv}AN!`6Co r Chen Shanru, director of Guangdong Development and Reform Commission, said on qu3R-p$N8W`,q
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Monday that the province's per 10,000 yuan ($1,282) gross domestic product (GDP) D1Psf2~a_)Rv
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energy consumption in 2005 was 65.8 percent of the nation's average. And the qrd-_*g-ZLXB

|$G{.~9qa$L amount was further reduced in 2006.0x,X}T b7V tY
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"It is exceptionally not easy for the province to achieve such a progress /V:` ~V$G|,f9}$Q

.PS$xF:O#o when its GDP reached 2,500 billion yuan ($321 billion), or a growth of 14.1
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percent, last year," said Chen.KH6nUVsij3Q
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He also said that as a next step, the province was planning to expand the

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s[ proportion of its tertiary industry. After years of industrial restructuring
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I5G6?Q5fn:C%K Compared to the second industry, tertiary industry consumes 20 percent of less MUK*v3l&n+~!@

mN*U1bT7c energy than the second industry under the same condition. Therefore, the ,\:|:hN#s(wJpb1O4CC

|H&J \d%t&e increase in the proportion of tertiary industry will greatly reduce the energy
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consumption, Chen said.