The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) released the 2006 Report on the State of the Environment in China on June 5th, World Environment Day. It revealed that China's GDP was up 10.7 percent over the past year, and the energy consumption growth rate was at 9.3 percent. However, the quality of the national environment has generally remained stable.

According to statistics, national chemical oxygen demand (COD) emissions were at a total of 14.282 million tons, up 1.0 percent over the previous year, but growth rate has dropped by 4.6 percentage points from the same period last year. Sulfur dioxide emissions were at a total of 25.888 million tons, up 1.5 percent over the previous year, but growth rate has fallen 11.6 percentage points. The state of air improved last year. Of the 559 cities whose air was monitored, the state of those whose air was already in relatively good condition, increased by 4.7 percent.

The water from the Pearl River and Yangtze River are drinkable; the Songhua River, Yellow River and Huaihe River are polluted; the Liaohe River and Haihe River were both heavily polluted. A survey of the quality of drinking water in 113 Key Environmental Protection Cities showed that 72.3 percent of them met the set standard.

By People's Daily Online