China Water Pollution Map
- A Fine Example of Information Transparency
By MA Jun
Keywords: water pollution, Water Pollution Map of China, information transparency
The Institute of Public & Environment Affairs (IPE), a non-government institute
launched in May, 2006, is devoted to research of environmental protection and takes
the initiative at raising the transparency of environmental information and promoting
prevention and control of water pollution. One of the efforts IPE has made is the
creation of a public database of water pollution that is combined with an electronic
map to provide information of water quality, waste and sewage discharge, and major
polluters nationwide.
Anyone can log on their website at www.ipe.org.cn to search for relevant
information of 31 provinces and over 300 cities throughout China. With support of the
database, provinces or cities can be ranked according to the volume of toxic or
noxious substances in their industrial wastewater discharge, urban and township
sewage discharge, or wastewater and sewage. The Environmental Transparency Index
is also available to show the information transparency of relevant administrative
departments at various levels.
I. Two Themes Combined: Water Pollution Control and Environmental
Information Transparency
Wastewater discharge in China is on the quick rise. According to the 2005
Report on the State of Environment in China, the total volume of discharged
wastewater and sewage nationwide that year reached 52.45 billion tons, COD
(Chemical Oxygen Demand) 14.142 million tons, and Ammonia Nitrogen discharge
1.498 million tons, all of which have experienced a sharp increase compared with the
previous year. The great lot of discharge has caused pollution of different degrees to
70% of the lakes and rivers in China, while 90% of urban groundwater is
contaminated by organic and inorganic pollutants, and the pollution is escalating from
point source to non-point one.
“Villages of Cancer”, where diseases such as cancer, are more and more
frequently reported in recent year, and have highlighted the great harm to the health of
the people, especially of those living along the poisonous rivers. Relevant government
departments and research centers admit that in-depth studies have so far not yet been
carried out on the danger pollution brings, and the low transparency of related
information has been a great concern of the public.
It has been well accepted that water pollution reflects the most acute
contradiction between developing the economy and protecting the environment. Like
other environmental problems, water pollution is not to be addressed by a single
department, institute, or organization. It needs the participation of the whole society.
China has been making progress in promoting public participation and
environmental protection. The State Council issued Outline for Promoting Law-Based
Administration in an All-round Way, putting forward the principle of information
transparency. The right for “the applicant or the interested party” “to request for a
hearing” is guaranteed in the 2003 Administrative License Law of the People’s
Republic of China. The fifth article of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on
Environment Impact Assessments adopted in 2002, reads “The state encourages
relevant entities, experts and the general public to participate in the assessments of the
environmental impacts in appropriate ways.” Detailed regulations to publicize
information in the process of assessing the environment impacts are also formulated
in the Provisional Measures of the Public Participation in Environmental Impact
Assessment in 2006. These rules and regulations enable the public to participate in
protecting the environment in a legal and orderly manner.
There is still a long way to full participation of the public in China. As far as
environment information transparency is concerned, thanks to the existing rules and
regulations that form the legal foundation, as well as the fast development of
telecommunications and network technology, information can now be widely spread
in a fast and convenient way with low cost. Environment information transparency is
the premise for the public participation in environmental protection. When not
informed of what is happening and will happen, there is no way for the public to
participate in decision-making and management of the environmental issues.
Considering that water pollution is one of the most serious environmental
problems in China, and that information transparency is the premise of public
participation, we decide to combine these two points and set up a nation-wide
database of water pollution, via which the public can get easy and full access to
information of water pollution all across the nation, so they can participate in and
make contributions to addressing the problem.
II. Data plus Map: Easy Access for the Public
To make it easy for the public to use, we decide to combine data with an
electronic map, and develop the China Water Pollution Map, a non-governmental
database that includes maps of the nation, 31 provinces and over 300 cities. The maps
show rivers and water systems in different parts of the country, and provide clear
navigation for the users to search, by directly clicking on the maps, relevant
information of water quality, waste and sewage discharge, and major polluters
nationwide, including information of enterprises exceeding standards and sewage
plants exceeding standards.
By clicking the button on administrative districts, users can retrieve the water
environment information of different places that has been categorized by year, and the
resources are mainly from bulletins, statistical data and official reporting from
government departments of environmental protection, water resources and oceanic
administrations at all levels. The collection of information can be divided into three
categories:
A. Water Quality Summary
This part contains information of water quality of various water bodies, such as
rivers, lakes and reservoirs, coastal sea water, groundwater, and drinking water in
different places. Users can search for related information by clicking the Water
Quality Summary button.
B. Summary of Discharge in Water Environment
This part contains not only yearly descriptions of various types of pollution,
including industrial wastewater discharge, urban and township sewage discharge,
land-based pollution sources to the sea, and area-source pollution, but also
quantitative data of pollution discharge, including total amount of wastewater and
sewage discharge, per capita amount of wastewater and sewage discharge, percentage
of industrial wastewater discharge meeting legal standards, amount of pollutant
discharge in industrial wastewater, treatment rate of urban and township sewage,
amount of pollutant discharge in urban sewage in different places. Users can get the
descriptions of all the above-mentioned discharge information, including the
quantitative data, by clicking the Summary of Discharge button.
C. List of Polluters
Besides enterprises exceeding standards, pollution sources listed in the website
also include sewage plants exceeding standards. Relevant information, categorized in
terms of different issuers at levels of state, province, and city, can be viewed on their
respective maps.
By clicking the Drainage Basin button on the upper left, users can view
information of water environment in different places. The national drainage map
provides links to specific drainage basin maps and related information of water
environment from water resource bulletins, annual statistic bulletins, news reporting
of environmental protection, etc. The information includes a summary of water
quality and discharge.
Sketch maps of water quality drawn by departments of environmental protection,
department of water resources, and oceanic administrations at all levels can also be
retrieved from the database to offer a better view of the pollution situation of rivers,
oceans, and groundwater in different places. Pollution maps are made for regions
lacking sketch maps of this kind so they may be put together with the official ones
and form a complete sketch map of nation-wide water pollution.
III. Positioned on the Map: Public Pressure on Polluters
By January 2007, more than 3200 polluters had been listed on the database, large
corporations including multi-national companies. Most of them are included in the
sub-standard enterprises by departments of environmental protection at various levels
for breaking relevant rules and regulations; quite a few of them were ordered to solve
their pollution problems by a deadline or were placed under close supervision. But
due to local protectionism, the rules have not been strictly abided by, and law-abiding
companies are loaded with economic burdens while those that break the law suffer
little. Many sub-standard enterprises do not feel the pressure from the public, and
have not really been urged to improve their performance in protecting the
environment.
Under these circumstances, it is urgent that departments of environmental
protection at all levels be given more power so that they can execute the law more
strictly, while at the same time, new means need to be explored to avoid legal
bottlenecks. Environment information exposure systems may be one of the most
powerful means to monitor the environment. In 1984, the poisonous gas leak of a
pesticide plant of Union Carbide Corporation in Bhopal, India claimed thousands of
lives. Two years later, similar leakage occurred in another plant of the same
corporation in the US. Under the public pressure, the US Congress passed the
Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act in 1988 concerning
producers of toxic and harmful substances. The act did not make further limitation of
density or total volume of discharge, but creatively focused on guaranteeing the
public rights to know.
While establishing the emergency response system, the act requests corporations
to report the toxic and noxious substances they release into the environment each year
to both the local government and the public. Based on this act, in 1988 the US
adopted the first Toxics Release Inventory, listing the some 7 billion tons of toxic
pollutants released from plants into the air, water body and soil. Making use of this
publicized information, mass media and environmental organizations reported and so
highlighted the biggest polluters and most seriously polluted areas. Specialist websites
were set up to provide easy access for knowing the local release of such pollutants,
and protest faxes sent to the major polluters.
The polluters soon felt enormous pressure from the public. To minimize the
negative effects, they started to take action to reduce their release of toxics, hoping to
be removed from the polluters list. The inventory became an important legislative
reference for the US Congress, which later targeted and monitored the major
pollutions based on the information the inventory provided when revising regulations
for protecting environment. Departments of environmental protection started to
supervise the major polluters according to relevant information, raising the costs of
pollution. Rising costs brought down efficiency of the polluters, leading the price of
their stocks to be lowered. From the establishment of the information exposure system,
toxics released in the US have been on an apparent decline.
At the request of the State Environmental Protection Administration of China,
more and more lists of major polluters are being exposed. From 2004 till now, more
and more sub-standard enterprises have been added to the database of the Water
Pollution Map. We hope under the pressure of the public, these enterprises will take
the responsibility for the environment and their safety impacts, and the local
departments of environmental protection will strictly perform their surveillance duties.
At the same time, we hope that when making a purchase, consumers will consider the
performance of its producer in protecting the environment, and in cases when options
are plenty they can reject products from sub-standard companies until sufficient
improvements have been made.
To help people get to know the local sub-standard enterprises, we are now
working together with organizations such as Beijing-based Green Earth Volunteers,
Gansu-based Green Camel Bell, Henan-based Huaihe Guards, and Anhui-based
Green Anhui to target enterprises and sewage plants exceeding standards. With their
specific geographic positions, we will start to mark them out on the electronic maps
so that communities will be warned of the dangers around them, and can participate in
supervising and controlling pollution sources.
IV. Ranking: Who Tops Water Pollution in China?
Users can rank, according to various criteria, all provinces or cities, and get a
horizontal comparison with other regions, so as to get a clear view of what and where
matters need most badly to be addressed.
At the lower part of the page users can combine different parameters – specific
area, item and year – to produce a discharge ranking. Data are mainly from annual
statistics bulletin and yearly environmental situation/quality reports of different
regions issued by the environmental protection administrations.
Users can view rankings of all provinces, all cities, or an individual city from any
province. By defining Area Selection, users can know the ranking of any province or
city, and they can also find out a certain city’s ranking within its province.
Five types of rankings are available:
1. Ranking of Total Amount of Wastewater and Sewage Discharge has four
sub-items: Total Amount of Wastewater and Sewage Discharge, Total Amount of
COD Discharge, Total Amount of Ammonia Nitrogen Discharge, and Per capita
Amount of Wastewater and Sewage Discharge.
2. Ranking of Industrial Wastewater Discharge has two sub-items: Total Amount
of Industrial Wastewater Discharge, and Percentage of Industrial Wastewater
Discharge Meeting Legal Standards.
3. Ranking of Amount of Pollutant Discharge in Industrial Wastewater has ten
sub-items: COD, Ammonia Nitrogen, Volatile Hydroxybenzene, Oil Discharge,
Cyanide, Mercury, Cadmium, Hexavalent Chromium, Arsenic, and Lead.
4. Ranking of Amount of Urban and Township Sewage Discharge has two
sub-items: Total Urban and Township Sewage Discharge, and Treatment Rate of
Urban and Township Sewage.
5. Ranking of Amount of Pollutant Discharge in Urban Sewage has two sub-items:
COD and Ammonia Nitrogen.
The rankings reflect that serious problems exist in some areas. For example,
Hunan Province has the most discharge of six kinds of heavy metals and toxics,
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of COD and ammonia nitrogen, Shanxi
Province of Volatile Hydroxybenzene, and Shaanxi Province of oil discharge. The
causes of these problems will be investigated in the up-coming Water Pollution
Report of China.
Environmental information transparency is the premise of efficient public
participation. As a result, we develop the Environmental Transparency Index (ETI) to
assess the information transparency of relevant administrative departments at various
levels. The first ETI shows that transparency is yet to be raised in a large part of the
nation.
ETI, developed by IPE, is a toolkit to conduct quantitative assessment of water
environmental information transparency of different regions. Three aspects are
assessed: publicity of water quality information (30 points), discharge information (30
points), and polluters (40 points). Publicity of province-level departments and
city-level ones are assessed separately for higher relevance. That means the ETI of
province-level departments of environmental protection seen in the website assesses
province-level departments only, and publicity of city-level department not taken into
consideration.
ETI is now being updated on an irregular basis, and the latest node of assessment
was at the end of August, 2006. The assessment is conducted based on publicity of
online information from relevant departments and news media.
(Ma Jun is Director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE))