MEP spokesperson Tao Detian revealed at a news conference today that MEP had finished evaluation of pollution reduction of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities for the first half of 2009 in cooperation with NDRC and National Bureau of Statistics. The evaluation results showed that total discharge of COD nationwide stood at 6.576 million tons, down 2.46% against the same period of 2008; SO₂ emissions totaled 11.478 million tons, a reduction of 5.40% as compared to that of the same period of 2008. Discharges of the two major pollutants maintained a good momentum of downward trend.
Tao noted that the international financial crisis brought about new problems and challenges for energy conservation and pollution reduction. In 2009, local authorities held on to reduction targets and standard in implementing the arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council with redoubled efforts. From January to June, 42350 MW coal-fired desulphurization units were put into operation across the country, municipal sewage treatment capacity increased by 5.68 million tons per day and small-scale thermal power units were phased out with installed capacity of 19890 MW. Substantial progress was made in restructuring energy-guzzling and pollution-intensive industries such as iron & steel, cement, coking, papermaking, alcohol and MSG industry, which gave a boost to pollution reduction effort. According to the monitoring results, the average concentration of permanganate value of surface water body at sections under state monitoring network was 5.3 mg/L, down 7% against the average of 2008 (5.7mg/L). Among the 113 key cities on environmental protection, SO₂ level averaged 0.045mg/Nm3, 6.2% lower than the annual average of 2008 (0.048mg/Nm³). (Evaluation results included in Appendix I)
Tao said there were still some problems with local enterprises in the operation of sewage treatment and desulphurization facilities in the first half year. Some sewage treatment plants were found to delay the construction of main projects and supporting pipelines, or have under capacity operation for a long term, or fail to have normal operation without any reasons, produce unqualified treated water or fail to dispose sludge effectively. These plants included Qingyuan Sewage Treatment Plant of Fuxin, Liaoning Province, Sewage Treatment Plant of Xicheng Dist, Daqing City, Heilongjiang Province, Kaifa Xinquan Water Co., Ltd of Taizhou, Jiangsu Province, Pingyang County Sewage Treatment Plant of Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, Xiaoxian County Sewage Treatment Plant of Suzhou, Anhui Province, Xiqu Sewage Treatment Plant of Shanwei, Guangdong Province, Jiangyang Sewage Treatment Plant of Luzhou, Sichuan Province and Anning Qilihe Sewage Treatment Plant of Lanzhou, Gansu Province. Some power companies did not operate desulphurization facilities as required which included Nengyuan Xilin Thermal Power Plant of Inner Mongolia, Liaoning Huadian Tieling Power Co., Ltd., Guodian Chengde Thermal Power Co, Ltd., Guangzhou Zhujiang Power Plant, Huaneng Haikou Power Plant, Nayong Power Plant of Guizhou Jinyuan Group, Guodian Yangzonghai Power Co., Ltd. and Honghe Power Plant of Datang International Power Generation Co. Ltd. MEP decided to expose above cities and enterprises according to related regulations and order them complete rectification by the end of 2009. Related provincial EPB should report their progress to MEP. If the rectification is not thorough or overdue, MEP will suspend approval of environmental impact assessment of construction projects that add to COD discharges on related cities. Punishment will be imposed on power plants by withdrawing tariff subsidy and demanding full payment of SO₂ emission fees.

Emission of Major Pollutants of Each Province, Autonomous Region and Municipality

 in the First Half of 2009

Province		COD（10,000 t）			SO2（10,000）
		The first 6 months of 2008	The first 6 months of 2009	Increase or	The first 6 months of 2008	The first 6 months of 2009	Increase or
				reduction(±％)			reduction(±％)
Beijing		5.09	5.03	-1.19%	7.42	7.17	-3.31%
Tianjin		7.24	7.16	-1.15%	12.78	12.56	-1.71%
Hebei		28.43	27.05	-4.84%	78.82	70.27	-10.85%
Shanxi		18.95	18.28	-3.52%	71.51	66.48	-7.04%
Inner Mongolia		12.87	12.82	-0.38%	70.45	69.54	-1.29%
Liaoning		30.3	29.67	-2.08%	54.74	52.42	-4.23%
Jilin		16.95	16.65	-1.77%	18.61	17.71	-4.85%
Heilongjiang		25.9	25.8	-0.38%	26.58	25.8	-2.92%
Shanghai		15.09	12.99	-13.92%	24.25	20.75	-14.43%
Jiangsu		46.71	45.05	-3.55%	59.92	54.16	-9.62%
Zhejiang		29.32	28.43	-3.04%	42.69	39.94	-6.44%
Anhui		22.09	21.52	-2.57%	27.42	26.57	-3.11%
Fujian		19.76	19.75	-0.04%	19.81	19.29	-2.61%
Jiangxi		21.82	21.33	-2.24%	25.2	24.39	-3.23%
Shandong		32.66	31.38	-3.93%	92.9	85.61	-7.84%
Henan		33.75	32.5	-3.72%	72.76	67.81	-6.81%
Hubei		30	29.92	-0.26%	33.28	31.6	-5.03%
Hunan		44.43	43.82	-1.37%	43.01	41.07	-4.50%
Guangdong		50.64	48.76	-3.71%	57.41	52.69	-8.22%
Guangxi		54.55	53.44	-2.04%	59.16	52.69	-10.94%
Hainan		4.74	4.7	-0.94%	1.05	1.07	1.51%
Chongqing		11.53	11.45	-0.71%	39.4	37.59	-4.59%
Sichuan		37.05	37.41	0.97%	53.75	54.35	1.11%
Guizhou		10.97	10.82	-1.33%	66.42	68.24	2.74%
Yunnan		14.82	14.56	-1.74%	25.25	25.97	2.84%
Tibet		0.7	0.7	0.00%	0.09	0.09	0.00%
Shaanxi		16.92	16.26	-3.93%	45.75	42.2	-7.75%
Gansu		8.7	8.41	-3.36%	25.76	25.32	-1.69%
Qinghai		3.46	3.56	3.03%	6.77	5.77	-14.75%
Ningxia		5.18	4.83	-6.85%	15.69	13.26	-15.48%
Xinjiang	Autonomous Region	12.6	12.58	-0.13%	33.56	34.17	1.83%
	Production Corps	0.95	0.946	-0.37%	1.14	1.26	10.25%
China		674.2	657.6	-2.46%	1213.3	1147.8	-5.40%