By Kathy Chen, Dominique Patton | 16 April 2015
(Reuters) – China will ban water-polluting paper mills, oil
refineries, pesticide producers and other industrial plants by the end of 2016,
as it moves to tackle severe pollution of the country’s water supply.
The long-awaited plan comes as the central government steps
up its “war on pollution” after years of industrial development that have left
one-third of China’s major river basins and 60 percent of its underground water
contaminated.
Growing public discontent over the environmental degradation
has led to increasing scrutiny of industrial polluters. China’s largest energy
company China National Petroleum Corporation [CNPET.UL] last month agreed to
pay 100 million yuan ($16 million) in compensation after it was accused of
leaking benzene into the water system in Lanzhou in northwest China.
But experts say much more needs to be done to protect
China’s scarce water resources.
“Water is the bottleneck to China’s industrial development.
Coal miners and factories located in western regions are suffering from water
shortage, and if their discharge of dirty waste water is not treated, the
pressure will increase,” said Alex Zhang, president of McWong Environmental
Technology, a United States-based water technology company.
The new plan – published by the State Council, China’s
cabinet – aims to raise the share of good quality water, ranked at national
standard three or above, to more than 70 percent in the seven major river
basins, and to more than 93 percent in the urban drinking water supply by 2020.
Impact on water will become a key consideration in future
industrial expansion, said the cabinet, adding that it will restrict building
of petrochemical and metal smelting factories along major river basins.
“We will fully consider the capacity of our water resources
and environment, and determine city planning, project location, population and
industrial output according to water reserves,” it said.
China currently controls water usage by allocating volume
permits to each province, and requests for additional water for new projects
will be refused in regions already exceeding their allocated quotas, said the
cabinet.
The government is targeting a cap on overall water
consumption at 670 billion cubic meters by 2020, and wants to cut agricultural
water use by more than 3.7 billion cubic meters by improving irrigation
efficiency by 2018.
Tiered pricing for residential water users will be rolled
out nationwide this year to encourage conservation. Non-residential users will
be charged progressive fees for overshooting quotas under a plan to enter into
force by 2020.
Source: http://sustainability.thomsonreuters.com