Eye on China: New Reports Reveal Growing Threat to China’s Environment

Coal storage with barge being loaded on the Yangtze River in China.

This month, the Chinese government released information from two first-time assessments of the state of China’s environment: the nation’s first annual soil survey and the first annual report on the health of the Yangtze River. The reports come at a time of growing environmental transparency in China, but reveal worrisome new details about the worsening ecological health of the world’s most populous nation.

In a recent speech at the Green China Public Interest Day for Environmental Protection, Pan Yue, vice minister of China’s State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), attributed “rapid decreases in farmland, freshwater, minerals, and forests” to unrestricted economic development. He noted that the Chinese people are at an increased risk of health problems related to water, air, and soil pollution and cited a 30-percent annual increase in lawsuits and collective crises caused by environmental problems.

Toxic food scares in recent years led the government to authorize the new national soil survey, which began in July 2006. While the final results will not be released until 2008, initial SEPA statistics show that heavy metals in Chinese soil now pollute 12 million tons of grain each year, leading to annual economic losses of 20 billion yuan (US$2.5 billion). The Ministry of Land and Resources reports that 12.3 million hectares—10 percent—of China’s agricultural land has been destroyed by pollution, and Time Magazine reports that in 2005, only 6 percent of Chinese agricultural products bound for the United States were considered “pollution-free.”

One major culprit is China’s coal industry. The Chinese burn 2 billion metric tons of heavily polluting coal each year, emitting some 2,000 tons of mercury into the environment annually. Once released, mercury and other heavy metals can contaminate the air, soil, and water and enter the food chain, causing health problems for humans and wildlife. Toxic pollution from China’s coal plants has been detected as far away as the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

Government officials hope that their 1 billion yuan (US$125 million) investment in the soil survey will enable them to track the type, degree, and cause of soil pollution, and to create pollution reduction plans and pilot projects aimed at soil restoration. The survey focuses in particular on the threats to major industrial centers and grain-producing regions, such as the Yangtze River basin, where nearly half the nation’s crops are grown.

The first annual Yangtze River water quality report contains similarly worrisome news. According to the study, an estimated 14.2 billion tons of polluted water is discharged into the 6,200-kilometer river—Asia’s longest—annually. An estimated 10 percent of the waterway has been declared to be in critical condition, while 30 percent of Yangtze tributaries are “seriously polluted.” The impact of human activities on the river’s ecology is “largely irreversible,” according to Yang Guishan of the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, one of the report’s chief editors.

The Yangtze accounts for 35 percent of China’s fresh water and is known locally as the “home of fish.” But pollution, damming, and increased boat traffic have all contributed to a dramatic decline in the river’s productivity. The annual harvest of aquatic products from the Yangtze dropped from 427,000 tons in the 1950s to some 100,000 tons in the 1990s; sturgeon stocks alone have declined to one quarter of the 1987 population. Pollution and the reduced river flow from damming have caused the water to “look like soy sauce,” observes Weng Lida, former head of the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission.

The new soil survey and the Yangtze report are just two indications of the problems looming in China’s future. SEPA minister Zhou Shengxian has expressed concern that the worsening soil pollution will not only endanger people’s health, but also jeopardize the nation’s ecology, food safety, and agricultural development.

This story was produced by Eye on Earth, a joint project of the Worldwatch Institute and the blue moon fund. View the complete archive of Eye on Earth stories, or contact Staff Writer Alana Herro at aherro [AT] worldwatch [DOT] org with your questions, comments, and story ideas.