Prospects to cut Chinese pollution cloudy

BEIJING, Sept. 25 (UPI) -- China’s environmental woes remain serious, according to the state environmental watchdog, despite record investment in 2006 to curtail pollution.

“China is under increasing pressure to cope with environmental pollution,” the State Environmental Protection Administration wrote in a new report.

In 2006 China invested more than $34 billion in anti-pollution measures, a 7.5 percent year-on-year increase, China Daily reports.

Yet pollution levels gained as well. Discharges of sulfur dioxide were up 1.5 percent year-on-year, weighing in at 25.89 tons. Discharges of domestic sewage increased as well, up 5.8 percent year-on-year.

Discharges of industrial wastewater fell by 1.1 percent.

Additionally, more than 800 "pollution accidents" were registered in 2006, including 482 incidents of water pollution, 232 cases of air pollution and 45 accidents due to solid waste.

SEPA remains hopeful for 2007, however.

“I’m confident that this year, the total pollutant discharges will reach a turning point,” said SEPA’s vice minister, Zhang Lijun, as quoted in a June news release on the agency’s Web site.

“Most of the new pollutant-control facilities were put into use last December, so they will show an effect this year.”