Ellen Liu
China Tibet Online
November 27, 2013
Editor’s notes: Chen Quanguo, general secretary of the Communist Party Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region responded to a Netizen who raised a question about Tibet’s environmental protection, reported by people.com.cn on Nov.5, 2013. Following are the question and answer:
Question: I am a cadre who provided aid to Tibet for three months, during which I found a lot to be done to protect Tibet’s environment. First, although the air is clean and the sky is blue, I see garbage on some scenic spots at some mountain passes or the foot of mountains. Second, newspapers and mineral water bottles were littered without being recycled, which has polluted the environment and wasted the resources. General Secretary Xi Jinping of the Chinese Communist Party said, Qinghai and Tibet are the waterhead of major rivers, so it is very important to protect the environment. But with the increasing number of people and people’s changing life style, environmental protection has become even more pressing than ever before.
Therefore, I suggest that first, public campaign be conducted to enhance people’s awareness of environmental protection. Second, recycling of used goods such as cupboards, newspapers, and mineral water bottles should be encouraged. And the government should provide subsidy to cover the high cost in transportation, and enterprises in recycling of paper and plastics should be set up in Tibet. Third, heavy industries should be strictly prohibited and environmental evaluation should become stricter in Tibet.
Answer: In the first place, we should make greater efforts to increase people’s awareness of environmental protection and change public behaviors.
The Tibet Autonomous Region has launched large-scale public campaigns on the opening and operation of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and the establishment of the state ecological barrier on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau on every “World Environment Day” on June 5，the national Energy-saving Week and Water-saving Week in cities nationwide as well as the World Earth Day.
Every year the Tibet Autonomous Region publishes an environmental protection report issues features on environmental protection on China Environmental Protection Newspaper, and holds quizzes about its common knowledge on Tibet Daily. Besides, it has also set up the fourth batch of “Green schools” to increase the awareness of students at an early age as well as conducted a survey on environmental protection at schools.
In the future, the Tibet Autonomous Region will continue to take the following steps:
Firstly, we will conduct more publicity campaigns on the grassroots to encourage more active participation of the local people; Secondly, we will include environmental protection into the lessons of the Party schools or administrative management training schools for cadres at various levels to enhance their awareness in this regard to shape their concepts of local development and performance; Thirdly, we will bring common knowledge of environmental protection into the curriculum of schools to increase the awareness of our next generations; Fourth, we will carry out volunteer activities of various kinds; Fifth, we will invite media to publicize this issue in order to build up an ecological security barrier.
In addition, the Tibet local government will subsidize recycling of used goods and set up enterprises in processing of paper and plastics.
With the establishment of energy-conserving and environment-friendly society and thanks to the favorable policies of the central and Tibet’s regional government, the recycling industry of renewable energy has achieved a marked development. All business owners have registered online, the urban renewable resource recycling network and market have taken shape, and the trial work has been launched in Lhasa.
According to the statistics of Tibet Department of Commerce, altogether 36 recycling enterprises in various trades, 358 recycling spots have registered with the total number of employees reaching 6,000. The annual recycled goods amounted to 300,000 tons including out of 600,000 tons used goods produced including 100,000 tons of nonferrous metal, five tons of plastics and 150,000 tons of iron and steel at a total value of 200 million yuan, double that of 2005.
At present, according to the related laws and regulations, a general plan in recycling renewable resources has been drafted and will be enforced soon. It encourages and guides major recycling enterprises to adopt chain business model and modern management methods including waste separation, community management and sanitation have been introduced.
Third, Tibet set a “”ed line” to restrict the development of heavy industry. Now Tibet is known as one of the cleanest places in the world attributed to its consistent implementation of the environmental appraisal and approval systems in its construction projects. Those industrial enterprises with high pollution, emission and energy consumption are strictly prohibited. For example, during an investigation in the Lunzhub County, we found some machinery with signs of the Sanyi Heavy Industrial Enterprise by the river. After consulting with the environmental inspection team dispatched from the Lhasa municipal government and Tibet regional government and an on-the-spot check-up, we found that this machinery was used in a cement production instead of a heavy industrial production in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
