A December 2000 report from U.S. Consulate General Chengdu

Summary:  Progress is being made on the pollution front in Sichuan, though less than planned, according to the province's environmental protection bureau. Tighter enforcement is evident, particularly this year as Beijing's concern about environmental issues is felt in Sichuan. Many small factories have been shut down, and others (large and small) have been told to clean up their act or face closure. While air quality has improved overall, acid rain is increasing. Water pollution remains at high levels, although the quantity of pollutants discharged into rivers fell in 1999. Past deforestation has resulted in landslides in mountainous areas; it will take years to see progress from the 1998 logging ban. Ordinary citizens' biggest complaint is noise pollution.
 

Air Pollution

In a November 21meeting with officers from the U.S. Consulate General in Chengdu, officials of Sichuan's Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB) admitted they had seen "no major progress" in improving the environment in Sichuan. Nonetheless, air quality in Sichuan's 22 key cities had improved "to some extent." The improvement was due to a moderate decrease in sulfur dioxide (SO₂) in the air and was apparently enough to counterbalance the increase in suspended particles (TSP) that the EPB also reported. (acrid smoke sometimes fills Chengdu's air, as it did on the day of this meeting. We learned that the EPB was close to banning its cause: agricultural burning.) An air pollution control law was enacted October 1.

Sichuan released 467.1 billion cubic meters of industrial waste gas in 1999, about five billion cubic meters more than in 1998. This included 530,000 tons of SO₂, 540,000 tons of industrial fly ash and 670,000 tons of industrial dust. Acid rain worsened in 1999, with the average annual ph value of rainfall at 4.95 (frequency of 29.7 percent).

EPB officials mentioned a few major sources of Sichuan's acid rain: the high sulfur content coal used in cooking (especially among farmers, but also in cities) and in factories. They discounted acid rain from the neighboring industrial city of Chongqing as a major factor contributing to Sichuan's problem.
 

Water Pollution

The EPB's biggest concern seems to be water pollution, despite reported improvements in 1999. Protection of the Yangtze, which runs through southern Sichuan, is a high priority of the Central Government in Beijing. Three of Sichuan's major rivers flow into the Yangtze, all polluted in varying degrees. Of these, the Tuo River (nearest to Chengdu, which is situated on a tributary of the Tuo called the Fulan) is the dirtiest. Forty percent of the province's pollutants are discharged into the Tuo, with the result that 76.2 percent of its surface water quality is below the national standard. This is also true of 30.1 percent of the Min River's surface water, and 47.1 percent of the Jialing's.

Water pollution has two sources: industrial waste water and household sewage. Only two of Sichuan's cities, Chengdu and Mianyang, have waste water treatment plants. In 1999, 1.7 billion tons of waste water (from both sources) were discharged into Sichuan's rivers. This amount was down 350 million tons from the year before. Of the total, 743 million tons came from state-owned enterprises, 210 million from township factories and 750 million from households. The EPB provided us with a breakdown by pollutant: mercury accounted for 0.01 ton; chromium, 29.2 tons; arsenic, 16.2 tons; cyanide, 21.8 tons; sulfates, 1,295 tons; cadmium, 1.02 tons; lead, 4.1 tons; phenol, 182 tons; oil, 1,663 tons; and chemical oxygen demand (COD), 337,981 tons.
 

Erosion And Landslides

Farming and deforestation have led to serious soil erosion, especially in mountain areas. The EPB estimates that over 250 million tons of sand and soil are washed annually into the Jinsha River, and 200 million tons into the Jialing. In all, 200,000 square kilometers of arable land, 41 percent of Sichuan's total, was affected by erosion.

In the course of the eighties, EPB officials said, forest cover on the upper reaches of major rivers decreased by one half. They are confident, however, these areas will be reforested within 10 years of the late 1998 imposition of a logging ban. Meanwhile, the province is beset with sometimes lethal landslides, especially in the mountainous south and west. (the most affected areas are Aba, Ganzi and Liangshan minority prefectures. In 1999, three major landslides occurred, at Gongxian in Yibin, Lugu Lake in Xichang, and Songpan in Aba, the last claiming some lives.)
 

Noise pollution

The EPB has a mechanism to receive citizen complaints. The officials answered in unison when asked about the biggest complaint: noise. Second most frequent was the pungent smoke from first-floor restaurants that rises to higher floors.
 

The EPB Fights Back

The Sichuan EPB's duties include drafting environmental laws, enforcing regulations (in cooperation with other government departments) and supervising implementation of these regulations. Enforcement can involve fines, administrative clean-up orders, inspections and, finally, shutting down polluters. During the ninth five-year plan (1996-2000), the EPB devised laws and regulations on the management of natural conservation areas, management of radioactive pollution (70 to 80 percent of China's radioactive pollution is in Sichuan), managing the Min River, and controlling drinking water. Prefectures can also work out environmental rules, as Liangshan prefecture did when it passed a law to protect Lake Qiong.

During the current five-year plan, Sichuan used these regulations to close down about 1,600 highly polluting small factories. These included mostly small paper mills, coking plants, sulfur plants and small cement plants located along rivers. We saw firsthand the effects of the province's growing awareness of environmental issues during a visit November 29 to Leshan, where a large tannery that we visited showed us their new one million RMB (US$120,000) water treatment facility. The owner explained that they had been told in 1999 that they had nine months to begin treating their waste water or face closure. Cities like Leshan, which rely on tourism, are being particularly diligent in enforcing the rules.
 

And that’s just the beginning

By the end of this year, the EPB promised that they will have "enforced pollution control" on 432 major polluters that will otherwise be closed down, and that every county-level city will have new or upgraded garbage treatment and waste-water facilities. Also, in the "near future," residents of Chengdu and other cities will start to use natural gas instead of coal. At the same time, the provincial EPB officials were uncertain whether Sichuan's local governments would have the funding they needed to carry out these plans.
 

Comment

The environment has become a national priority in China, and it is clear from the numbers of closed factories (and our own observations) that combating pollution is being taken very seriously throughout Sichuan. Authorities here realize that Sichuan cannot move forward economically unless the province becomes more livable, and citizens are increasingly concerned about the air they breathe and the water they drink. Some, albeit modest, progress was made during the now-concluding five-year plan; more will come as new projects come on line, as new enforcement and monitoring techniques are adopted, and as citizens become ever more interested and active. As a result, we expect substantial improvement over the next five years.