Beijing to make better use of water resources
Minister of Water Resources Chen Lei pledged yesterday that the central government would make better use of water resources and promised the 'most stringent management and regulations ever' to address water shortages and pollution.
Mr Chen's statement, released on the Ministry of Water Resources website yesterday, is regarded by some mainland water experts as a major shift in tone. The ministry used to stress aggressive exploitation of water resources to serve the needs of the mainland's break-neck economic growth.
Some experts believed the ministry had changed tack to fall in line with President Hu Jintao's speech on Friday in which he stressed the nation must not sacrifice its environment for economic gains, despite the current financial crisis.
'We cannot lose the momentum to develop more efficient, cleaner and new energy sources, particularly during the global financial crisis,' Mr Hu was quoted by Xinhua as saying.
Mr Hu's speech was made during a visit to a clean-energy exhibition in Beijing by all nine members of the Politburo on Friday, a gesture showing the leadership attaches great importance to environmental concerns as suspicion rises that China might drop its green goals to stimulate the economy.
Mr Chen's statement was also a response to mounting domestic criticism, the experts said. The ministry came under attack by representatives and delegates of the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference this month, many of whom said the severe drought that hit the mainland earlier this year was down more to human error than natural catastrophe, and that the ministry should be held responsible for bad water management and conservation.
Critics have said the ministry has allocated too much funding to large-scale, aggressive water exploitation projects while leaving scant resources for sustainable development such as more efficient irrigation infrastructure for farmers and drinking safety facilities for ordinary citizens.