China in action to ensure safety of drinking water
Source: Xinhua |
July 22, 2013, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
China is to improve the monitoring of drinking water sources, control poisonous contaminants and step up early warning mechanisms to ensure drinking water safety.
Although 95.3 percent of monitored drinking water sources in 113 major cities across China met national standards last year, people should not be too optimistic about the situation, a top environment official said yesterday.
China has no special national standards to monitor drinking water sources, said Ling Jiang, deputy director of the pollution prevention department under the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
The figures were obtained from 387 drinking water sources in the 113 cities and by testing only about 20 indicators based on surface water standards.
"Some harmful and poisonous contaminants for drinking water were not included," he told an ecological forum in Guiyang in southwest China.
"We cannot conclude that the water sources are of good quality only because these routine indicators meet the criteria," Ling said.
Aside from setting national standards, the ministry plans to expand monitoring points and include more indicators in the future, Ling said.
The ministry also plans to take measures to get a more clear view of the quantity and quality of the country's underground water and set up a sound pollution prevention mechanism for underground water within five years, he said.
Ling said the government aims to enhance control of poisonous contaminants from sources of pollution, especially the chemical industry.
"It, however, will be extremely difficult for the government to trace and monitor chemical products from production, transportation to usage," he said.
Last month, the country's supreme court and procuratorate jointly issued a new judicial explanation aimed at easing difficulties in investigating environmental pollution cases and convicting polluters.
Discharging, dumping or treating radioactive waste or waste containing infectious disease pathogens or toxic substances into sources of drinking water and nature reserves will be considered crimes of polluting the environment.
"Compared with administrative punishment, the judicial document will increase the costs of environmental pollution, which was previously believed to be too low to curb polluting activities," he said.
The outlook on the quality of China's water sources is "far from optimistic," according to a recent report by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
The quality of underground water in 57.3 percent of the 4,929 monitoring points in about 200 cities is "relatively poor" or "extremely poor."
Liu Changming, a hydro-engineer, said Chinese cities are facing an imbalance in water supply and demand, expanding pollution and excessive use of underground water after 30 years of urbanization.
Although 95.3 percent of monitored drinking water sources in 113 major cities across China met national standards last year, people should not be too optimistic about the situation, a top environment official said yesterday.
China has no special national standards to monitor drinking water sources, said Ling Jiang, deputy director of the pollution prevention department under the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
The figures were obtained from 387 drinking water sources in the 113 cities and by testing only about 20 indicators based on surface water standards.
"Some harmful and poisonous contaminants for drinking water were not included," he told an ecological forum in Guiyang in southwest China.
"We cannot conclude that the water sources are of good quality only because these routine indicators meet the criteria," Ling said.
Aside from setting national standards, the ministry plans to expand monitoring points and include more indicators in the future, Ling said.
The ministry also plans to take measures to get a more clear view of the quantity and quality of the country's underground water and set up a sound pollution prevention mechanism for underground water within five years, he said.
Ling said the government aims to enhance control of poisonous contaminants from sources of pollution, especially the chemical industry.
"It, however, will be extremely difficult for the government to trace and monitor chemical products from production, transportation to usage," he said.
Last month, the country's supreme court and procuratorate jointly issued a new judicial explanation aimed at easing difficulties in investigating environmental pollution cases and convicting polluters.
Discharging, dumping or treating radioactive waste or waste containing infectious disease pathogens or toxic substances into sources of drinking water and nature reserves will be considered crimes of polluting the environment.
"Compared with administrative punishment, the judicial document will increase the costs of environmental pollution, which was previously believed to be too low to curb polluting activities," he said.
The outlook on the quality of China's water sources is "far from optimistic," according to a recent report by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
The quality of underground water in 57.3 percent of the 4,929 monitoring points in about 200 cities is "relatively poor" or "extremely poor."
Liu Changming, a hydro-engineer, said Chinese cities are facing an imbalance in water supply and demand, expanding pollution and excessive use of underground water after 30 years of urbanization.
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