The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will cooperate with China in
developing a market-based system to manage water pollution, said
the bank in a news release on Thursday.
A policy study on market-based instruments for water pollution
control seeks to strengthen water pollution management systems to
help the country achieve its water pollution control target more
effectively and efficiently, said the multilateral developing
finance institution.
The file picture shows the
water pollution of the Sancha River in Yichang, central China's
Hubei Province, in March this year.
It added that the project will develop a set of policy advice
and recommendations that will serve as basis for introducing
market-based instruments and mechanisms to combat the country's
water pollution problems.
ADB will provide a US$500,000 grant for the project, which is
estimated to cost US$650,000. The balance will be covered by the
Chinese government.
The country has been experiencing rapid economic expansion since
the late 1970s, maintaining an average annual gross domestic
product growth of about 9 percent and lifting millions of people
out of absolute poverty.
"Along with the rapid growth, however, the country has been
faced with the increasingly difficult task of controlling
environmental pollution, resources depletion and ecological
degradation. Despite government efforts and investment, the country
has yet to arrest these problems," said Yue Fei, senior social
sector economist of ADB's East Asia Department.
Water pollution has emerged as a most pressing environmental
concern of the Chinese government. To further enhance water
pollution control, the government has determined to set for the
11th Five-Year Program a mandatory performance target to reduce the
chemical oxygen demand discharge by 10 percent using 2005 as base
year.
(Xinhua News Agency, Chinanews.com?October 19, 2007)
