China Says 278 Cities Have No Sewage Treatment
Date: 03-Sep-07
Country: CHINA
And eight of those cities have populations of more than
500,000, Zhao Baojiang, chairman of the China association of
city planning, was quoted as saying.
In its rapid development into the world's fourth-largest
economy, China has been struggling to curb horrific water and
air pollution.
It has become the world's top emitter of acid-rain causing
sulphur dioxide and many analysts expect it to overtake the
United States this year as the biggest greenhouse gas emitter.
An estimated 5,000 "administrative towns" and 20,000
smaller, market towns also had no sewage treatment facilities
and a lack of clean water was especially acute in the central
province of Henan, the China Daily said.
Pollution has taken on greater urgency as Beijing tries to
clean up its notoriously filthy air before hosting the 2008
Olympics next August.
