Chinese Official Notes Damage to Environment

China must sharply improve environmental protection or it could face disaster after two decades of breakneck growth that have poisoned its air, water and soil, the country’s top environmental official said Saturday.

The director of the State Environmental Protection Administration said that more than half of China’s 21,000 chemical companies were near the Yangtze and Yellow rivers -- which provide drinking water for tens of millions of people -- and accidents could bring “disastrous consequences.”

“Facts have proved that prosperity at the expense of the environment is very superficial and very weak,” Zhou Shengxian said at a news conference during the annual meeting of China’s parliament. “It’s only delaying disaster.”

China’s cities are among the world’s smoggiest and its major rivers are badly polluted, leaving hundreds of millions of people without enough clean drinking water.

Protests have erupted throughout the country over farmers’ complaints that uncontrolled factory discharges were ruining crops and water.

Environmental protection took on new urgency for Chinese leaders after a chemical spill in November, which sent toxic substances into northeastern China’s Songhua River and forced cities in China and Russia to shut off water supplies.

Zhou’s agency said in a report that its goals for this year included better prevention and pollution control, stricter environmental law enforcement and increased supervision of nuclear and radiation safety.

Zhou took office after the outcry over the November disaster forced the resignation of his predecessor, who was the highest-ranking Chinese official to be ousted over an environmental incident.