Beijing will endeavor to make all rivers and lakes within the
sixth ring road of the city free of pollution by the year 2010.
The goal appears in the Blueprint Regarding Recycling-Based
Economic Development of Beijing City for the 11th five-year-plan
period (2006-2010) published Tuesday.
The city is hoping to meet the goal by regulating the treatment
of everyday trash and hazardous waste, and improving the use of
recycled water.
The goal is an ambitious one given that national antipollution
goals were not attained in the tenth five-year plan.
According to the document, by the year 2010, more than 50
percent of water used in downtown Beijing will be recycled water,
and 99 percent of everyday trash in downtown areas and newly
developed residential quarters, as well as all hazardous waste
materials, will be properly processed.
A goal has been set of processing 80 percent of trash from the
city's rural areas by 2010.
Currently, the city produces and discharges 1.28 billion tons of
sewage each year. 55 percent of the five major waterway systems
surrounding the city are polluted.
Untreated waste water, industrial effluent and agricultural
pollution are blamed for deteriorating water quality in the city's
lakes and rivers.
(Xinhua News Agency December 15, 2006)
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