China's State of the Environment Report for 2012 suggests that the overall quality of China's environment is balanced and stable. The condition of underground water remains to be a big concern. Li Dong has the details.

 

　　Released annually by China's Ministry of Environmental Protection, a key area of negative focus in this year's report is China's general water quality.

 

　　The ministry collected data from 5,000 monitoring stations in nearly 200 cities across the country. The results showed that 27 percent of water sources were of good quality while 17 percent were rated as extremely bad. 95 percent of both surface and underground water sources are up to standard.

 

　　Wu Sunze, deputy director of the Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, says that as a whole, surface water can be regarded as slightly polluted and overall urban air quality as stable, but the situation remains grim.

 

　　"The main issue is that the level of pollutedness of underground water near contamination sources is unclear. This is a great concern for the public as it may seriously affect people's health."

 

　　Shi Xiaojuan, director of the drinking water department of the Ministry of Environmental Protection says that treating polluted underground water is extremely difficult.

 

　　"Basically, once underground water is polluted, it is irreversible. It can also cost a great deal of money to treat underground water pollution. Many people still don't know this."

 

　　Sun Jichao, vice general engineer of the Water Environment Institute of the Chinese Academy of Geological Science believes that protecting current water resources should be the priority.

 

　　"There are very limited methods available. At the beginning, the Japanese hoped to treat underground water via a special fund specifically set apart for this. Gradually, however, they realized that they could not afford to carry on. The US also set aside a super fund for the same thing, but also reached the conclusion that it was too financially draining. Therefore, we should emphasize preventing pollution as the primary precautionary measure when dealing with the underground water issue."

 

　　The report also says that the four major indicators of emissions all decreased in 2012, compared to figures from 2011. Chemical Oxygen Demand discharge was reduced by 3 percent, and sulfur dioxide was cut by 4.5 percent. Emissions of ammonia nitrogen and nitrogen oxide both fell by more than 2.5 percent.

 

　　However, the report noted that hazy days were frequent during the first and fourth quarter of 2012. When applying the new air quality standards set at the beginning of this year, it was found that more than half of the 74 pilot cities failed to reach the standard. Only 24 percent of the key environmental protection cites reached their environmental targets in 2012.

 

　　For CRI, I am Li Dong.