China 2 Part 2
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Speakers from the Meetings of the Working Group on Environment in U.S.-China Relations September 1997-April 1998 WEN BO China Environment News FREDERICK CROOK United States Department of Agriculture DENNIS ENGI Sandia National Laboratories ERIC FREDELL United States Department of Commerce JACK FRITZ The World Bank DANIEL GUNARATNAM The World Bank STEPHEN HAMMALIAN SJH Consultants, Inc. ROBERT HATHAWAY International Relations Committee, United States House of Representatives JASON HUNTER The Nautilus Institute ABIGAIL JAHIEL Illinois Wesleyan University NANCY KETE World Resources Institute DAN MILLISON Ecology and Environment, Inc. DOUGLAS MURRAY National Committee on U.S.-China Relations RAY PHILLIPS ICF Kaiser, Inc. PETER RIGGS Rockefeller Brothers Fund GRÁINNE RYDER Probe International ELLEN SPITALNIK Environmental Protection Agency JOHN B. STEWART Ogden Environmental and Energy Services Company STETSON TINKHAM United States Department of State, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs LEE TRAVERS The World Bank ZHI WANG United States Department of Agriculture SUSAN WARE National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration CHANGHUA WU World Resources Institute Working Group Co-Chairs ELIZABETH ECONOMY Council on Foreign Relations P.J. SIMMONS Carnegie Endowment for International Peace CHINA ENVIRONMENT SERIES 45 An Overview of Chinese Water Issues 10 September 1997 CHINESE OCEANIC ISSUES within the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), the State Oceanic Administration (SOA), and China’s ocean challenges and priorities are not the State Fishery and Fishing Ports Administration much different than those in the United States: the (SFPA). Marine issues were also included in China’s Chinese are attempting to balance economic growth Agenda 21 plan and in a ten-year national marine en- and resource use with protection of their marine envi- vironmental protection program. ronment. China exhibits a recognition of the impor- According to China’s Agenda 21, the objectives of tance of scientific research and a commitment to pur- marine protection through the year 2000 are to: (1) miti- suing an understanding of not just the marine envi- gate offshore pollution and ecological damage; (2) im- ronment but also of the interaction between land and prove marine conditions in the coastal areas of large sea, and of the ocean and the atmosphere. cities; and (3) continue to protect marine water quality Over 400 million Chinese live along the 32,000 ki- in relatively unharmed areas. lometers of coastline in China. China also encompasses In order to meet these goals, China plans to: 6,500 islands and an estimated 3 million square kilo- meters of exclusive economic zone area. Coastal areas • Reinforce protection of key coastal areas including in China account for 60 percent of the country’s total the Bohai Sea, Jiaozhou Bay, estuary of the Yangtze industrial and agricultural output, with the marine in- River, offshore areas of Zhoushan, and the Zhujiang dustry including: marine fisheries, marine communi- River estuary. An emphasis will be placed on pollu- cation and transportation, sea-salt resources, seawater tion control of organic salts, organic matter, and petro- agriculture, offshore oil and gas, and marine medicine leum-related pollution; and foodstuffs. • Undertake water quality management in order to bet- China’s reliance on the marine environment as a ter control pollutants entering marine ecosystems; food source is even more remarkable. In 1994, marine • Strengthen comprehensive environmental manage- fisheries accounted for nearly 9 million metric tons ment in coastal cities; and (MMT) of fisheries catch, marine aquaculture for nearly • Reinforce marine environmental pollution monitor- 3.5 MMT, freshwater fisheries for 1.2 MMT, and fresh- ing capabilities. water aquaculture for nearly 8 MMT. China’s increasing reliance on marine resources has It should be noted, however, that the priorities of caused a series of environmental and social problems. different Chinese agencies often vary: the priorities Increased exploitation of offshore fishery resources, for listed in Agenda 21 may not be the same as those ex- example, has damaged marine biological diversity, and pressed by SOA or SFPA. the constant increase of marine pollutants has aggra- There is strong cooperation between the National vated environmental pollution in certain sea areas. Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Chinese Chinese Environmental Priorities government, spanning a variety of issues. There are a A priority of China’s environmental program has number of agreements between NOAA and agencies always been the protection of its marine resources. The in China under the U.S.-PRC Science and Technology Law of Marine Environmental Protection, promulgated Agreement, which range from cooperation on aquac- in 1983, was the first comprehensive legal provision to ulture research to coastal zone management. NOAA protect marine resources in China. Six other environ- will also co-host a workshop on natural disasters with mental laws regarding the protection of marine re- China in Beijing in November 1997. sources have since been passed. China is also a mem- ber of a number of relevant international conventions, CHINESE WATER SCARCITY including the International Convention on Civil Liabil- ity for Oil Pollution Damage, the International Con- In descending order, China’s water priorities can be vention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, and classified as the following: flood control; water scar- the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution city; water transmission efficiency and losses; expan- by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter. sion and improvement of water use for agriculture; soil In order to implement the Law of Marine Environ- and water conservation; and water resource develop- mental Protection, China created relevant marine en- ment. vironmental protection organizations and institutions 46 CHINA ENVIRONMENT SERIES Floods and Flood Control in 1996 and addresses severe pollution of non-marine Flood control is the most important water issue in water resources. It is consistent with the new pollu- China. Over 350 million Chinese are subject to severe tion control strategies in the Ninth Five-Year Plan and floods each year, with over 75 million subject to an- the Transcentury Green Plan, and includes the follow- nual floods on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River ing key articles: alone. Another 75 million are subject to yearly flood- ing on the Huai River. In 1991, for example, a flood on • Article 2 specifies that the law covers all non-marine the Huai River inundated 66 million hectares and dis- waters; placed 30 million people. Annual economic damages • Article 5 allows citizens to file formal legal complaints; related to flooding fluctuate, with $10 billion lost in 1996 • Article 10 calls for a river basin planning approach; and $20 billion lost in 1990. The Chinese are conse- • Article 16 describes the total pollutant control (TPL) quently very concerned about floods and flood con- strategy; trol, making these issues the top Chinese water prior- • Article 19 states that “urban sewage shall be centrally ity. treated,” allowing for a sewage treatment fee to be paid in lieu of a normal pollutant discharge fee in urban ar- Water Scarcity eas greater than 500,000 people; China is currently facing a number of very serious • Article 22 calls for cleaner production; and water quantity problems, exemplified by the follow- • Article 23 outlines the “blacklisting” of highly pol- ing: luting production technology. • In 1995, 400 of 595 Chinese cities had water short- Municipal Sewage Projects ages. Over 100 of these were in the North China Plain. China has a need for both permit and pretreatment • According to some statistics, water shortages in China municipal sewage programs, for which multilateral, have led to nearly $12 billion in annual losses. bilateral, and build-own-transfer (BOT) funding is • Groundwater subsidence in the North China Plain, available. There are a variety of options open to treat which has the most serious water shortage problem in wastewater, including aquaculture and treatment wet- China, has been measured at over three meters per year lands. for the past few years. An example of how a municipal sewage project in • Many coastal areas have experienced saltwater in- China develops can be seen through the experience of trusion due to groundwater mining. a proposed project in Anhui province. The Asian De- • More than 70 percent of the flow of the Yellow River velopment Bank provided a $150 million loan for two is lost each year to utilization of water resources. municipal sewage plants and four industrial plants with clean technology upgrades. In order to meet its Options for Addressing Water Scarcity Problems Class V water quality objective, Anhui needed a 75 • Water is severely underpriced. Higher water prices percent chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction of would increase conservation of water. its wastewater. However, this COD approach did not • In the long term, there must be major water industry address the eutrophication problem in adjacent Chao restructuring and privatization. In England, for ex- Hu Lake, which has significant nitrogen and phospho- ample, the government restructured over 150 water rous pollution. The questions regarding this project agencies into 10 comprehensive agencies based on are abundant, for example: would a pretreatment