Congress approves ecological revision
Source: Xinhua |
December 27, 2010, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE National People's Congress, China's top legislative body, has approved a draft revision to the country's Law on Water and Soil Conservation to protect the environment.
The revised law, which goes into effect on March 1, 2011, stipulates that individuals and companies who work on unused land will be held responsible for the any soil erosion or flooding.
After massive rock and mud slides in Yunnan and Gansu provinces this summer, Chen Lei, the minister of water resources, said soil erosion and flooding remains a top environmental problem in China.
Zhou Ying, vice minister of water resources, said that the situation "poses a severe threat to the ecology, food safety and flood control."
Penalties must now be included in land contracts reached with local governments, according to the law.
If people fail to stop flooding and soil erosion within a given time, they will now have to pay the full expense of the government's repair work.
The law also requires compensation fees be paid if projects are carried out in areas that are more likely to feel an -environmental impact, such as sandy regions.
Sun Honglie, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said 37.2 percent of Chinese land suffers from soil erosion.
China loses 666 square-kilometers of farmland due to soil erosion and flooding annually. At that rate, 9,300sq km of farmland in northeast China will have lost its topsoil within 50 years, said Sun.
The revised law, which goes into effect on March 1, 2011, stipulates that individuals and companies who work on unused land will be held responsible for the any soil erosion or flooding.
After massive rock and mud slides in Yunnan and Gansu provinces this summer, Chen Lei, the minister of water resources, said soil erosion and flooding remains a top environmental problem in China.
Zhou Ying, vice minister of water resources, said that the situation "poses a severe threat to the ecology, food safety and flood control."
Penalties must now be included in land contracts reached with local governments, according to the law.
If people fail to stop flooding and soil erosion within a given time, they will now have to pay the full expense of the government's repair work.
The law also requires compensation fees be paid if projects are carried out in areas that are more likely to feel an -environmental impact, such as sandy regions.
Sun Honglie, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said 37.2 percent of Chinese land suffers from soil erosion.
China loses 666 square-kilometers of farmland due to soil erosion and flooding annually. At that rate, 9,300sq km of farmland in northeast China will have lost its topsoil within 50 years, said Sun.
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