Acid rains force China to impose stringent emission controls
Press Trust of India
Beijing, October 13
With one-third of China's territory suffering serious pollution from acid rain, the government has banned new construction of coal-fuelled power plants while imposing stringent emission controls on existing units in the country, a report said on Monday.
No coal-fuelled power plants will be built or expanded in big and medium-sized cities and in the remaining areas, power plants are required to be equipped with devices to eliminate sulphur dioxide, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) said.
Last year, coal-fuelled power plants in China emitted a total 6.66 Million tonnes of sulphur dioxide, accounting for 34.6 per cent of the total.
The administration has pledged to reduce the emission of sulphur dioxide in China, which is the main cause of acid rain, by 10 per cent from its 2000 level by 2005.
The country has officially recognised four municipalities, 21 provincial capitals and 175 cities as zones heavily polluted by acid rain or sulphur dioxide, accounting for more than 10 per cent of the total territory.
It is urgent for the country to control the sulphur dioxide emission by coal-fuelled power plants, the SEPA official said.
According to SEPA's five-year plan from 2000 to 2005 to cope with acid rain and sulphur dioxide, 137 large coal-fuelled power plants must equip themselves with devices to purify the emission of sulphur dioxide.
China will also amend the present sulphur dioxide emission standard, the SEPA added.
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