U.N. Cites China on Pollution
BEIJING -- The United Nations said that while China has made progress in increasing access to water for its citizens, fighting pollution remains a major challenge.
Most of the country's canals, rivers and lakes have been severely tainted by agricultural, industrial and household pollution.
"Pollution of water sources is widespread and increasingly serious in China. Meanwhile more water is being used than is being replenished, which shows in falling groundwater tables and drying rivers," said Alessandra Tisot, senior deputy resident representative of the U.N. Development Programme in China.
"As the needs of consumers, agricultural and industrial production are pitted against one another in a booming economy, these problems can be expected to grow worse, not better," Ms. Tisot told a news conference.
Despite a growing recognition of the costs to the environment of China's industrial boom, heavy polluters continue to foul the water and air because restrictions aren't enforced at the local level.
But Ms. Tisot said China has yielded "impressive and laudable" results in extending access to water and improving sanitation across the country.
The government is building a $60 billion network of canals meant to move vast amounts of water from China's wetter south to Beijing and other parts of the arid north.
Ms. Tisot was speaking at a briefing in Beijing on the U.N.'s latest Human Development Report, which highlighted the Chinese government's measures to improve the lives of rural residents.
Zhou Huaidong, director of the Ministry of Water Resources' water environment assessment center, said the government was aware of the urgent need to address the pollution problem. "The severe pollution of water is a very severe setback for the socioeconomic development of China," Mr. Zhou said.
联合国称中国水污染问题依然严重
联合国(United Nations)周二表示，中国在增加居民供水方面取得了进步，但依然面临水污染的严峻挑战。
中国的河流湖渠遭到了严重的农业、工业和生活污染，水污染和缺乏清洁饮用水已经成为中国面临的最严重的问题之一。
联合国开发计划署驻华高级副代表丁雅珊(Alessandra Tisot)表示，中国的水源污染问题十分普遍，而且变得愈加严重。此外，地下水位下降和河流干涸说明用水量超过了补给量。
丁雅珊在新闻发布会上表示，随着中国经济的飞速发展，消费者的需要与农业、工业生产发生了冲突，在此背景下，这些问题势必愈加严重，而不会发生好转。
尽管越来越多的人意识到中国为工业腾飞付出了高昂的环境代价，但由于地方政府监管不力，污染大户们仍在继续排放污染物。不过丁雅珊表示，在普及供水和扩展卫生设施方面，中国取得了“重大的、令人称道的”成果。
中国政府目前正在修建耗资600亿美元的南水北调工程，以解决北京和干旱的北方地区的缺水问题。
丁雅珊是在联合国最新的《人类发展报告》(Human Development Report)发布仪式上做这番表示的。这份报告突出了中国政府为改善农村居民生活所采取的措施。报告称，政府投入资源，专门为农村地区开发和推广卫生厕所。
水利部(Ministry of Water Resources)水环境监测评价研究中心负责人周怀东表示，政府意识到了解决水污染问题的迫切性。
参与此次会议讨论的周怀东说，水污染问题严重阻碍了中国的社会经济发展。目前在中国的1千多个城市中，有400个城市面临水资源短缺……这是个很严重的问题。
中国政府今年8月表示，将在2010年前投入1,250亿美元提高水处理和水循环水平，以应对日益严重的城市水污染威胁。
