XII. Resources, Environment and Work Safety

In 2009, land reclamation and re-development programs added 269 thousand hectares of cultivated land.

In 2009, the total supply of state-owned land for construction use was 319 thousand hectares, a growth of 44.2 percent over the previous year. Of this total, that for mining storage 119 thousand hectares, up 44.1 percent, for real estate development, 103 thousand hectares, up 36.7 percent, for infrastructure facilities, 97 thousand hectares, up 53.0 percent. In 2009, of the total 105 key cities covered by monitoring program the composite prices for land went up by 5.0 percent over the previous year, of which, the prices for commercial used land went up by 5.6 percent, for residential land, up 7.9 percent and 1.6 percent growth for industrial used land.

The total stock of water resources in 2009 was 2,376.3 billion cubic meters, a year-on-year decrease of 13.4 percent, or 1,784.9 cubic meters in per capita terms, down by 13.8 percent. The annual average precipitation was 583.1 millimeters, down by 10.9 percent. Large reservoirs in China stored 180.5 billion cubic meters of water at the end of 2009, 15.6 billion cubic meters less than that at the end of 2008. Total water consumption went up by 0.4 percent to reach 593.3 billion cubic meters, of which water consumption for living purposes rose by 2.9 percent, for industrial use down by 0.6 percent, for agricultural use up by 0.6 percent, and for ecological water supplement down by 9.8 percent. Water consumption for every 10 thousand yuan worth of GDP produced was 209.3 cubic meters, a decline of 7.6 percent. Water consumption for every 10 thousand yuan worth of industrial value added was 116.4 cubic meters, down by 8.2 percent. Per capita water consumption was 445.7 cubic meters, down by 0.1 percent.

National land surveys and geological explorations discovered a total of 398 new mineral deposits in large or medium size, including 107 energy mineral deposits, 177 metallic mineral deposits, 109 non-metallic mineral deposits and 5 aqueous and gaseous deposits. Increased reserves were found for 65 minerals, including 1.12 billion tons of crude oil, 723.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 50.36 billion tons of coal.

According to the results from the seventh National Forest Inventory, by the end of 2008, the total forest areas of China were 195.45 million hectares, and the forest coverage was 20.36 percent. The total stumpage volume reached 14.913 billion cubic meters and 13.721 billion cubic meters of forest volume.

In 2009, a total of 5.88 million hectares of forest were planted, of which 3.89 million were afforested by manpower. Some 4.47 million hectares were afforested through key afforestation projects, accounting for 76.0 percent of the total planted area of the year. About 2.48 billion trees were planted in 2009 by volunteers. By the end of 2009, there were 2,529 natural reserves including 319 national ones. A total of 48 thousand square kilometers of eroded land were put under comprehensive treatment programs, and 27 thousand square kilometers of land were closed for nurture and protection in areas suffering water and soil erosion. By the end of 2009, the total forest areas with set ownership were 100.93 million hectares, of this total, 75.73 million hectares obtained the forest ownership certifications.

The average temperature in 2009 was 9.8℃, Typhoon hit China 9 times in 2009.

Preliminary estimation indicated that the total energy consumption in 2009 amounted to 3.10 billion tons of standard coal equivalent, up 6.3 percent over 2008. The consumption of coal was 3.02 billion tons, up 9.2 percent; crude oil 380 million tons, up 7.1 percent; natural gas 88.7 billion cubic meters, up 9.1 percent; and electric power 3,697.3 billion kilowatt hours, up 6.2 percent. The national energy consumption per 10,000 yuan went down by 2.2 percent. The consumption of major kinds of raw materials included 690 million tons of rolled steel, up 22.4 percent; 7.53 million tons of copper, up by 39.7 percent; 14.39 million tons of electrolytic aluminum, up by 14.4 percent; 10.66 million tons of ethylene, up by 8.0 percent; and 1.63 billion tons of cement, up 17.0 percent.

Monitoring of water quality on 408 sections of the 7 major water systems in China showed that 57.1 percent of the sections met the national quality standard from Grade I to Grade III for surface water, up by 2.1 percentage points over the previous year; and 18.4 percent were worse than Grade V, down by 2.4 percentage points compared with that in the previous year. Generally, the water quality in the 7 major water systems continued to improve with some river basins still having serious pollution.

Monitoring of oceanic water quality at 299 offshore monitoring stations indicated that oceanic water met the national quality standard Grade I and II in 72.9 percent of the stations, up by 2.5 percentage points from the previous year; water quality at 6.0 percent of the stations met Grade III standard, down by 5.3 percentage points; and water of Grade IV or inferior quality was found at 21.1 percent of the stations, up by 2.8 percentage points.

In the 612 cities covered by air quality monitoring program, 504 cities reached or topped air quality standard Grade II, accounting for 82.4 percent of all cities under the program; 100 cities attained Grade III, accounting for 16.3 percent; and air quality in 8 cities was inferior to Grade III, accounting for 1.3 percent. Of the 327 cities subject to noise monitoring program, 4.9 percent enjoyed fairly good environment, 70.0 percent had good environment, 23.9 percent had light noise pollution, and 1.2 percent experienced medium noise pollution in downtown areas.

At the end of 2009, the daily treatment capacity of city sewage reached 86.64 million cubic meters, up 6.9 percent over that in 2008. City sewage treatment rate was 72.3 percent, up 2.1 percentage points. The floor space with central heating systems amounted to 3.56 billion square meters, up 2.0 percent. Greenery coverage reached 34.4 percent of the urban area, up 1.1 percentage point.

In 2009, natural disasters caused 252.4 billion yuan worth of direct economic loss, 78.5 percent less than that in previous year. Natural disasters hit 47.21 million hectares of crops, up 18.1 percent, of which 4.92 million hectares of crops was demolished, up 22.0 percent. Floods and waterlog caused a direct economic loss of 65.5 billion yuan, up by 0.5 percent and left a death roll of 902, down by 10.8 percent. Drought caused a direct economic loss of 109.9 billion yuan, an increase of 2.58 folds. Disasters from low temperature, frost and snow made a total direct economic loss of 17.2 billion yuan with a death roll of 40. Oceanic disasters caused a direct economic loss of 10.0 billion yuan, down by 51.3 percent. The occurrence of red tides hit an accumulative area of 14,102 square kilometers, up by 2.7 percent. China registered 10 thousand geological disasters, which left a death doll of 331 and made a total direct economic loss of 1.83 billion yuan. The country recorded 24 earthquakes with magnitude 5 and over, 8 of which caused disasters, causing a direct economic loss of 2.74 billion yuan and leaving a death roll of 3. The year 2009 witnessed 8,808 forest fires, down by 37.7 percent.

The death toll due to work accidents amounted to 83,196 people, a year-on-year decrease of 8.8 percent. The death toll from work accidents every 100 million yuan worth of GDP was 0.248 people, a decline of 20.5 percent. Work accidents in industrial, mining and commercial enterprises caused 2.4 deaths out of every 100 thousand employees, down 14.9 percent. The death toll for producing one million tons of coal in coalmines was 0.892 persons, down 24.5 percent. The year 2009 witnessed 238 thousand traffic accidents, claiming 68 thousand lives, injuring 275 thousand people and causing a direct property loss of 910 million yuan. The road traffic death toll per 10 thousand vehicles was 3.6 persons, a decrease of 0.7 person.