A senior environmental official on Sunday urged local
governments not to support polluting projects for sake of
environmental protection.
Pan Yue, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection
Administration (SEPA) said on a program of China's Central
Television that China should give priority to environmental
protection, instead of merely seeking for economic growth.
He said it's not a workable strategy to develop the chemical
plants which would seriously pollute the environment.
He said he could understand some local officials who give green
lights to polluting projects.
"I used to think the same way as you do, that is, all the
problems can be solved when we have money," Pan said, adding that
he once was an advocator for China to be the "world factory".
However, statistics showed that our country cannot afford the
way of traditional industrialization, he said.
"Environmental crisis and other problems would emerge earlier
than we imagined and would cost us much more to solve them," Pan
said.
Pan also said different government departments should work
together to protect the environment and control pollution.
(Xinhua News Agency May 14, 2007)
