SEPA publishes Q1 report

The country's top environment watchdog yesterday released its first-quarter report, but its content provided little more than an overview of the nation's environmental health.

Pan Yue, vice-minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), did not give specifics of where or how the environment had deteriorated, nor did he provide figures on major pollutant emissions such as sulphur dioxide (SO2) and chemical oxygen demand (COD), a water pollution index.

Pan did say that inhalable particles were still the major pollutants in air. In many cities, the level of discharged pollutions had already grown close to the environmental limits, he said.