我想...........(About Environment proctection)

The Yellow River is dying. Despite exhortations by state leaders to put the environment first, the amount of untreated sewage dumped into China mother has increased instead of fallen in recent years.



In t 1990, 40 per cent of the rivers water was drinkable. Now, the figure has dropped to 33.3 per cent. Moreover, the river is also suffering from a dramatic decrease in water flow because of low precipitation and overuse. So much so that it has become a regular occurrence for parts of the river to dry up.



For the 5,464 km-long waterway that is known as the cradle of Chinese civilisation, that is a tragic development that illustrates what is so wrong about China preoccupation with growth. Years of emphasis on getting rich first have blinded many cadres to the byproducts of industrial development.





To tackle the problem, the State Environmental Protection Administration has set up regional offices to strengthen its monitoring of local breaches. Hopefully, with backing from Beijing, these outposts will be able to turn things around over time. But more will need to be done to avert the environmental and human catastrophe that experts say a worsening shortage of clean water would do to the nation.



More intelligent and rational use of water should be a first priority. In China, as in many other countries, governments are loath to charge users the full costs of treating and piping water. In some cases, that is justified as a strict application of the user-pays principle would deprive many people of access to an essential necessity. However, it would be wrong to keep rates artificially low just to keep the masses happy, as is still the case in many parts of the country.