Environment minister defends his 'embarrassing' department
Source: Agencies |
July 10, 2013, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
CHINA'S environment minister says his ministry ranks among the world's "four major embarrassing departments" but he defended it by saying it was hampered by overlapping functions in government.
Zhou Shengxian's comments were a blunt admission that the country has a long way to go in tackling pollution.
Public anger over smog that blanketed many northern cities in January has spread to appeals for the government to clean up water supplies, especially after the rotting corpses of thousands of pigs were found in the Huangpu River that supplies Shanghai's water in March.
"I've heard that there are four major embarrassing departments in the world and that China's ministry of environmental protection is one of them," Xinhua news agency's official microblog account quoted Zhou as saying.
"Our environmental work involves many departments. Many of the functions are overlapping," Zhou said, adding that water, land and carbon output were all managed by different ministries.
Zhou said the current challenge was how to properly deal with environmental problems caused by economic development.
Zhou Shengxian's comments were a blunt admission that the country has a long way to go in tackling pollution.
Public anger over smog that blanketed many northern cities in January has spread to appeals for the government to clean up water supplies, especially after the rotting corpses of thousands of pigs were found in the Huangpu River that supplies Shanghai's water in March.
"I've heard that there are four major embarrassing departments in the world and that China's ministry of environmental protection is one of them," Xinhua news agency's official microblog account quoted Zhou as saying.
"Our environmental work involves many departments. Many of the functions are overlapping," Zhou said, adding that water, land and carbon output were all managed by different ministries.
Zhou said the current challenge was how to properly deal with environmental problems caused by economic development.
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