Investment in Environmental Pollution Control Hits Historical High            

The bulletin of national environmental statistics published by the State Environmental Protection Administration on September 24th, 2007  shows that the total investment put in environmental pollution control in 2006 was RMB256.78 billion, an increase of 7.5% over 2005 and accounting for 1.23% of GDP, hitting the historical high.
   The investment in the pollution control of industrial polluting sources was RMB48.57 billion, an increase of 6.0% over 2005. The investment in the environmental protection of new construction projects was RMB76.72 billion, an increase of 19.1%. The investment in the construction of urban environmental infrastructures was RMB131.49 billion, an increase of 1.9%.
   The total discharge amount of waste water was 53.68 billion tons, an increase of 2.3% over 2005. The discharge amount of industrial waste water was 24.02 billion tons, accounting for 44.7% of the total discharge amount of waste water and a drop of 1.1% from 2005. The discharge amount of urban domestic sewage was 29.66 billion tons, accounting for 55.3% of the total discharge amount of waste water and an increase of 5.8% over 2005.
   The rate of standard compliance in industrial waste water discharge was 92.1%, a drop of 0.5 percentage points from 2005. The rate of industrial water recycling was 80.6%, an increase of 4.5 percentage points over 2005.
   The discharge amount of sulfur dioxide was 25.888 million tons, an increase of 1.5% over 2005.
   Besides, the discharge amount of smog was 10.888 million tons, a drop of 7.9% from 2005. The discharge amount of industrial dust was 8.084 million tons, a drop of 11.3%.The rate of standard compliance in the discharge of sulfur dioxide produced by industrial fuel combustion and the rate of standard compliance in the discharge of sulfur dioxide produced through industrial production process was 82.3% and 81.0%, an increase of 1.4% and 10.0% respectively. The generation amount of industrial solid wastes was 1.52 billion tons, an increase of 12.7%.
   By the end of 2006, China constructed 528 ecological demonstrative pilot zones and organizations, including 233 state-class ecological demonstrative zones.
   In spite of the progress made in environmental protection, the environmental situation is still severe. Frequent pollution incidents have produced serious impacts on people's life and the environmental pressure is getting heavier and heavier.