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A polluted river runs past a factory in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province. The mainland is banning water-polluting plants. Photo: Reuters

China to ban water-contaminating industrial plants as it steps up 'war on pollution'

Polluting factories will be outlawed from the end of next year to turn back the tide of contamination in rivers and underground reserves

China will ban water-polluting paper mills, oil refineries, pesticide producers and other industrial plants by the end of next year, as it moves to tackle severe contamination of the 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 the mainland's major river basins and 60 per cent of its underground water contaminated.

In a separate development, the State Council called on Wednesday for changes to industry to promote sustainable development and energy efficiency. The changes were expected to deliver about 2 trillion yuan (HK$2.5 trillion) in economic benefits for the environmental industry, news portal Thepaper.cn reported, citing sources from the Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Growing public discontent over environmental degradation has led to increasing scrutiny of industrial polluters. China National Petroleum Corp last month agreed to pay 100 million yuan (HK$126.7 million) in compensation after it was accused of leaking benzene into the water system in of Lanzhou.

But experts say much more needs to be done to protect scarce water resources.

"Water is the bottleneck to China's industrial development," said Alex Zhang, president of US-based McWong Environmental Technology.

The new water plan - published by the State Council - aims to raise the share of good quality water, ranked at national standard three or above, to more than 70 per cent in the seven major river basins, and to more than 93 per cent in the urban drinking water supply by 2020.

Impact on water would become a key consideration in future industrial expansion, the council said, adding it would 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.

The government aims to cap overall water consumption at 670 billion cubic metres by 2020, and wants to cut agricultural water use by more than 3.7 billion cubic metres 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.

 

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Industrial bans to tackle water plight
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