China's first national standards on pollution control on farms have
been issued recently by the country's top environmental authority.
The State
Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) standards will
apply to more than 14,000 large and medium-sized farms around the
country.
The new standards specify sewage treatment requirements and maximum
pollutant discharge for farms, as well as the minimum distance
between a farm and residential areas or water sources.
Livestock farms, with huge excrement of poultry and animals, have
become a major pollution source in the countryside, according to a
SEPA survey.
Farms around the country were urged to make better use of animal
waste under the new standards, which can be processed, for example,
into high quality fertilizer or fuel for electric generators, said
the authority.
The survey also said animals on farms throughout the country in
1999 produced 1.9 billion tons of excrement, 2.4 times the amount
of solid waste discharged by the industrial sector.
Large poultry and livestock farms in the suburbs of big cities,
especially in East China's coastal areas, are big pollution
producers.
In
the Huangpu River in Shanghai, for instance, more than 30 percent
of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) comes from animal
excrement.
Ji
Gang, a SEPA publicity official, said on Friday that large farms
have been disposing of the excrement by washing it and pouring the
sewage directly into rivers nearby without processing.
Sewage from the farms, along with the use of fertilizer and
pesticide, has therefore become the biggest pollution source for
water resources in the countryside, said Ji.
Statistics released by the administration said that more than
one-third of pollution of the country's water resources comes from
the countryside.
"No technical difficulties stand in the way of solving the
problem," said Ji. "It is only an issue of awareness."
The above-mentioned survey started in November 2000, and ended last
May.
SEPA, following a national survey, issued a series of general
regulations of pollution control on farms in May, according to
Ji.
(China
Daily March 4, 2002)