China'S Shoe Leather Industry To Usher In A New Turning Point In Emission Reduction Action

Since the decision of the State Council to carry out environmental protection special operations nationwide in 2003, more than 700 law enforcement personnel have been dispatched, more than 300 000 enterprises have been inspected, 12 illegal environmental enterprises have been investigated, and more than 20 thousand illegal polluters have been banned. This has played a positive role in containing environmental violations and safeguarding the rights and interests of the masses.

In 2007, the breakthrough of pollution reduction was achieved. Under the condition of sustained and rapid economic growth, the total chemical oxygen demand and total sulfur dioxide emissions of the main pollutants in the country have fallen by two times. This indicates that after 5 years of arduous efforts, in July 10th, the Ministry of environmental protection, the development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of supervision, the Ministry of justice, the Ministry of housing, urban and rural construction, the General Administration of industry and commerce, the General Administration of safety supervision and the Electricity Regulatory Commission jointly convened a videophone conference on illegal pollution discharge enterprises in China to protect the masses' health and environmental protection, and summarized the environmental protection special actions in the past 5 years.

Turning to the achievements of the environmental protection special action in the past 5 years, Lu Xinyuan, director of the Environmental Protection Bureau of the Ministry of environmental protection, said that the whole country has organized all over the country to deal with the "fifteen small" enterprises in successive pollution, centralized drinking water source environmental safety, urban sewage treatment plants exceeding standard sewage discharge, heavy polluting industries blindly developing, resulting in regional and watershed pollution, industrial parks and construction projects irregularities and other issues. Large-scale environmental protection special inspections and centralized rectification have been carried out, and remarkable results have been achieved.

In the 5 years since the investigation of environmental violations and effective containment of the high incidence of illegal sewage disposal, more than 700 law enforcement personnel have been dispatched throughout the country, more than 300 enterprises have been inspected, 12 more than 12 illegal environmental enterprises have been investigated and banned, and more than 20 thousand illegal sewage enterprises have been banned.

Focusing on the rectification of 8 heavy polluting industries such as iron and steel, 7057 enterprises were investigated and dealt with in 2004, 3058 of them were banned and 3058 tons of industrial dust were cut down, accounting for 10% of the total industrial dust emissions in the same year, and 224 thousand tons of sulfur dioxide emission reduction, accounting for 1.2% of the total industrial sulfur dioxide emissions in the same year.

Shanxi province has concentrated on cleaning up six heavy polluting industries, such as coking, metallurgy and chemical industries, and has shut down more than 1200 illegal enterprises and facilities. In 2007, the number of air quality of two cities in 11 key cities of the province increased by 122% over 2003.

A large number of "fifteen small" enterprises groups that are seriously endangering the health of the masses, such as Hebei tanneries, Zhejiang small printing and dyeing, Guangdong dismantling and dismantling of electrical appliances, small chemical industry in Hunan, Hunan's small chemical industry, Yunnan's Guizhou's indigenous zinc smelting, and Fujian small electroplating, have been thoroughly cleaned up. The unscrupulous environmental violations have been significantly reduced.

Among the illegal enterprises investigated, the proportion of "fifteen small" enterprises seriously polluting and destroying the ecological environment decreased from 56.6% in 2003 to 9.9% in 2006.

In order to solve the outstanding environmental problems and safeguard the environmental rights and interests of the masses for 5 years, the governments at all levels have supervised and solved over 2 thousands of illegal environmental problems with strong public awareness and serious pollution.

Through the environmental protection hotline accepted by the 12369 environmental protection hotline, there are as many as 160 complaints, and more than 96% of the environmental complaints are resolved in a timely manner.

For 3 consecutive years, the drinking water source protection area has inspected more than 1.5 thousand centralized drinking water sources, banned all industrial enterprises' sewage outlets in the first grade protected areas, and cleared illegal construction projects in the two level protected areas, basically eliminating the potential environmental safety problems in the protected areas.

Among them, Jiangsu has eliminated 2384 centralized drinking water sources, banned 210 closed and non-standard drinking water sources, and closed and relocated 192 sources of pollution in drinking water source protection areas.

The compliance rate of water quality assessment section in Jiangsu section of Huaihe River Basin increased from 55.6% in 2002 to 95.6% in 2006.

To solve the problem of pollution caused by the masses and solve the problem of pollution caused by the lead enterprises in some areas of Anhui, Hebei and Zhejiang, the pollution problem of paper enterprises in Dongting Lake, the pollution problems of small chemical enterprises in Beichen, Tianjin, the pollution of Chongqing Minfeng farm, Henan Zhoukou monosodium glutamate, Wuhan morning Ming paper and Hunan Zhuhua and so on, and a series of complaints repeatedly solved by the masses, which have not been solved for a long time, have solved the problem of environmental pollution in a big way, which has effectively safeguarded the lives, health and environmental rights and interests of the masses.

Accelerating the elimination of backward production capacity and promoting the reduction of total pollutant emissions in the past 5 years, we have effectively cut down the total volume of pollutant emissions by shutting down and harnessing polluting enterprises and eliminating backward production capacity.

In 2007, the emission of chemical oxygen demand in the whole country dropped by 3.2% compared with 2006, and the emission of sulfur dioxide dropped by 4.7% compared with that in 2006, indicating a historic turning point in China's environmental protection.

Chemical oxygen demand (COD) emissions from paper industry in key industries accounted for 1/3 of China's industrial sector.

In 2007, more than 8000 papermaking enterprises were checked in the whole country, 1120 enterprises were closed down and 2 million 600 thousand tons of backward production capacity were eliminated, and the chemical oxygen demand of 60 tons was estimated to be reduced.

Among them, Hunan Province closed down 234 of the paper-making enterprises that pollute the Dongting Lake, and the local water quality of Dongting Lake area changed from five to three.

Henan's paper-making enterprises were reduced from more than 1360 to 308, and the paper-making enterprises in Shandong province were closed from more than 600 to less than 30, and the total amount of chemical oxygen demand dropped significantly. Centralized management of lead related chemical enterprises to solve the frequent problems of lead poisoning and poisoning occurred in 2007. The environmental protection administration carried out centralized management and closed down 280 enterprises to 1601 leading enterprises, and the safety supervision departments at all levels actively promoted the relocation of chemical enterprises with insufficient safety distance, and 67 chemical enterprises were removed, and 2303 chemical enterprises with safety and environmental problems were closed.

In the past 5 years, environmental pollution in key areas has been improved, and the environmental quality of the basin has been improved. The regional pollution problems such as the Shanxi, Shaanxi, Mongolia and Ningxia "black triangle" and the "manganese triangle" in Hunan, Guizhou and Chongqing have been comprehensively improved, and the environmental situation of these basins has been greatly improved, and the environmental quality has been steadily improved.

The "black triangle" and "black triangle" in Shanxi, Baode, Hequ, Shaanxi, Fugu and Inner Mongolia Zhungeer Qi border areas are rich in coal resources, and "Mother River" runs through the area.

Along with the development of resources, some industries such as ironmaking, coking, calcium carbide and lime ash have been built along the coast of the Yellow River. At the same time, some polluting enterprises such as small ironmaking, small coke making, small calcium carbide and small white ash have been issued.

In the past 4 years, four provinces and autonomous regions have closed down and banned more than 1700 enterprises that are not in line with the state's industrial policies and serious pollution.

Shizuishan, Ningxia, which is located in the region, was listed as one of the ten major air pollution cities in China in 2003. Through the deadline management, the air quality ranking of 113 key cities in the country rose from the countdown fourth to seventy-seventh in 2004, and removed the hat of the ten major cities with serious air pollution in one fell swoop.

The regulation of "manganese triangle" and "manganese triangle" in Hunan, Guizhou and Chongqing refers to Huayuan County, Songtao Miao Autonomous County and Xiushan Tujia and Miao Autonomous County located at the junction of Hunan, Guizhou and Chongqing. The reserves of manganese ore in this area reach more than 1.5 million tons.

With the rapid development of the local manganese industry, the Qingshui River, which flows through three counties, has been seriously polluted and has lost the function of drinking water.

In the 2002 and 2003 years, there were many accidents of collapse of manganese slag storage yard, which aggravated the pollution of Qingshui River.

After more than two years of regulation, the implementation of cleaner production technology, the demonstration project of harmless treatment of chromium slag and the demonstration project of manganese slag safety dump, the Qingshui River has regained its elegant demeanour, and the "border town" written by Shen Congwen in Bian Town, Huayuan county has become a good place for people to visit. In October 2007, it was awarded the "three-star tourist attraction" by the National Tourism Administration.