China's environment declining

BEIJING — China's environmental situation is deteriorating, with several major rivers and lakes clogged by industrial waste, state media said Tuesday.

Although spring sandstorms have helped clear the air by blowing away pollutants, the country's waterways are suffering, the Xinhua News Agency said, citing Pan Yue, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration.

"Pollution worsened in many parts of the country in the first quarter of the year, according to nationwide monitoring results," Pan was quoted as saying.

The conditions of the Mohe River north of the Yangtze River, a lifeline for tens of millions of people, and Haihe River near Beijing and Tianjin have "worsened a great deal," Xinhua said.

Pan also said the situation of Taihu Lake and Chaohu Lake in east China and Dianchi Lake in Yunnan province in the southwest have dramatically changed.

No details were given about why the situation was declining.

Pan said the quality of drinking water in cities monitored by his agency deteriorated between January and March, with 69.3 percent rated as "qualified," five percentage points lower than the same time last year. He did not elaborate.

China's three-decade economic boom has left its waterways and coastlines severely polluted by industrial and farm chemicals and domestic sewage. Its countryside is littered with garbage and construction waste, and its cities are suffocated by smog.

While communist leaders have repeatedly promised a cleanup, they say they are constrained by a need to promote economic growth and by a lack of technology.

Environmental protection has grown in prominence after a string of industrial accidents that poisoned major rivers.