China to Shut Paper Mills to Clean Up Yangtze River
10/8/96
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Headline: China to Shut Paper Mills to Clean Up Yangtze River
Source: Reuters
Date: 10/8/96
Copyright 1996 by Reuters
BEIJING (Reuter) - China plans to close down all paper mills on the
upper reaches of the Yangtze river as part of a wide-ranging clean-up
along the river, the Xinhua news agency said Tuesday.
The closures would come as part of a programme to minimise ecological
effects of the gargantuan Three Gorges dam project -- the world's
largest hydropower facility due for completion in 2009, Xinhua said.
As a first step, the government would close down all small paper mills
in the upper reaches of the river before the project's completion,
Xinhua said.
The government had set aside about $10.8 million to help set up an
ecology and environment monitoring network to keep an eye on changes
that might be brought about by the dam project, Xinhua said.
Authorities would try to curtail industrial pollution in the Yangtze,
and would work to halt soil erosion along the middle and upper reaches
of the river, Xinhua said.
The government is pushing ahead with a technical renovation campaign
to update processing technologies and recycling standards in big
factories discharging waste along the river, the agency said.
Major Yangtze polluter Chongqing city in Sichuan province was building
a waste-water treatment plant capable of handling 48,000 tonnes of
water a day, it said.
The central government had allocated $54 million to plant 7.1 million
acres of land with trees along the central and upper reaches of the
river, it said.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank had rejected a request from U.S. companies
to provide financial backing for the $30 billion Three Gorges project,
citing environmental concerns.
Critics of the project, which would submerge 244 square miles of land,
have said it could have devastating effects on the environment.