China - social unrest over pollution

The head of China's environmental agency has blamed the rising number of riots, demonstrations and petitions across the country on public anger at pollution.

Echoing the language of the Cultural Revolution, Zhou Shengxian called for a "struggle" against polluters, and said the public refused to accept the increasing degradation of the environment.

His unusually outspoken comments underscore the frustration of state mandarins at local government officials who ignore environmental standards in order to attract investment, jobs and bribes....

Breakneck growth has turned China into a huge environmental disaster area. A soon-to-be-published World Bank report says some 500,000 people die each year as a result of pollution.

Beijing is trying to shift the economy on to a more sustainable development track. The state council - China's cabinet - tightened the water pollution law to require more testing, licensing and stiffer penalties, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.

But factory owners who violate state guidelines are often protected by local officials. According to Mr Zhou, the state environmental protection administration chief, many plants build secret pipes to discharge polluting chemicals. Others release toxins when locals are asleep....

Anger has been fuelled by unfair land grabs and health fears. According to the government, two-thirds of China's 595 cities now have unhealthy air.

Pollution scandals are common. Earlier yesterday, state media reported that tap water had been restored to 200,000 residents of Shuyang county in Jiangsu after a chemical spill halted supplies for 40 hours. The environment agency said more than a quarter of the seven main river systems were so polluted that the water was unfit for human contact.

The tendency towards secrecy has increased concerns. According to the FT, officials have tried to remove figures from a World Bank report that suggest up to 400,000 people in China die each year from outdoor air pollution, 30,000 from indoor air pollution, and 60,000 from water pollution.
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"China's environment close to 'breakdown': govt official"

China's environment is close to breaking point and the situation is endangering people's lives, one of the nation's top anti-pollution officials said in comments published Wednesday.

Pan Yue, an outspoken vice minister at the State Environmental Protection Administration, said campaigns to clean-up the environment were going backwards because the country's primary focus continued to be on economic growth.

"Pursuit of short-term goals is leading to ever increasing pollution despite various measures," Pan told the China Daily in an interview.

"Traditional ways of development have caused the near breakdown of China's resources and environment, and people's lives are in great danger."

His comments come as dumped industrial waste forced drinking water to be cut off for 200,000 residents in eastern China's Jiangsu province.

A factory had been dumping hazardous levels of ammonia and other chemicals into a river, forcing the suspension of water supplies to residents in Shuyang county, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Pan's comments also came a day after the London-based Financial Times newspaper reported that the Chinese government had pressured the World Bank into deleting data from a report showing that 750,000 people die prematurely in China each year from pollution...

More than 70 percent of China's waterways and 90 percent of its underground water are contaminated by pollution, according to previous government reports.