China Collects Pollution Data from Almost 6 Million Sources (Photo)

Posted by Deborah Seligsohn on Feb 16, 2010

China just released its first ever pollution census – a national survey that collected data from almost six million separate sources , to which China devoted a reported $100 million and 570,000 staff in the collection effort. In late 2006, China’s State Council made the decision to conduct the survey. The Ministry then spent a year preparing, and the actual data collection took place in 2008. The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) has issued aggregated data from the study. There have been numerous press reports in both English and Chinese, but intrepid readers can also find what is essentially the Executive Summary of the report on the web in Chinese*, and there is also a speech by the leader of the study describing more of the process and background.

As much of the press has noted, and Vice Minister Zhang Lijun emphasized in his press conference, the major story is the improved measurement of water pollution. The report reveals considerably more water pollution from more sources than previously calculated. To date, China had collected data mainly on industrial sources, with some data on urban water quality. This study included millions of agricultural sources. In measuring water pollution this expansion of data sources changed the statistics dramatically. Chemical oxygen demand (COD, a measure of the amount of chemical pollution in the water) was measured by the census at 30.3 million tons in 2008, more than double the 13.2 million ton figure the Ministry had reported for the same year. The census reports agriculture to be the largest source at 13.2 million tons, with industry producing 5.6 million tons and households 11.1 million tons. This suggests the importance of adding agricultural sources to measurements of water pollution. It appears that the previous Ministry figure, focused on urban areas and industry, did in fact capture industrial and most household pollution, but for water, in particular, leaving out agriculture is leaving out a major part of the story.