China to spend billions to fix Yangtze environmental damage
China will spend billions of dollars treating sewage and planting forests to arrest massive environmental problems along the Yangtze river and its Three Gorges reservoir.
"Generally speaking, the ecological state of the river is still far from what the Communist Party and people are demanding," forestry minister Jia Zhibang told journalists. "For numerous reasons, the forests on both sides of the river have been seriously degraded, leading to bare mountains and hills that have led to repeated natural disasters" such as landslides.
The new plans call for an increase in forest coverage along the 370 mile long reservoir to 65% from the current 22%, Chongqing city mayor Huang Qifan said at the same news briefing. More than 1.5 billion dollars will be invested in the forestry campaign.
Meanwhile, Chongqing, a megacity of more than 30 million people upriver from the reservoir, will invest heavily in treatment of urban wastewater. Critics of the 22.5 billion dollar Three Gorges Dam hydroelectric project which created the vast reservoir have long complained about its huge human and environmental toll.
Critics have said it is causing erosion along the banks and preventing the river from flushing out pollution. Officials had said previously that 1.4 million people were forced to relocate to make way for the reservoir, but earlier this year China said an additional 300,000 people would be relocated.
The new relocations were aimed at curbing pollution and protecting residents from frequent landslides blamed on the rising reservoir. Recent torrential rains have once again spotlighted the environmental problems, with massive quantities of trash and other debris washed into the river, threatening to jam up the dam.
The garbage was so thick in places that people could walk across it, the China Daily newspaper said. To help curb worsening water pollution, Chongqing, which has invested 50 billion yuan on sewage treatment facilities in recent years, will invest another 28 billion yuan in the coming three years, Huang said.
America's historic Chinatowns, home for a century to immigrants seeking social support and refuge from racism, are fading as rising living costs, jobs elsewhere and a desire for wider spaces lure Asian-Americans more than ever to the suburbs.
Read More
China is planning on ramping up their space endeavors pver the next five years.
Read More
China is in danger of missing out on another World Cup after dropping a 1-0 decision at home to ten man Iraq.
Read More
China is clearly troubled by the proposed US law that will punish countries with artificially low currencies.
Read More
China offered huge stockpiles of weapons to Moamer Kadhafi during the final months of his regime and held secret talks on shipping them through Algeria and South Africa.
Read More