Clean-up bid for Yangtze set to begin

BEIJING - An alarm over massive environmental damage along the Yangtze River and its Three Gorges reservoir has been raised by officials as authorities plan to spend billions of yuan treating sewage and planting forests in a major clean-up campaign.

"Generally speaking, the ecological state (of the river) is still far from what the people are demanding," said Jia Zhibang, director of the State Forestry Administration at a press conference organized by the State Council Information Office on Tuesday.

"For numerous reasons, the forests on both sides of the river have been seriously degraded, as is reflected in barren mountains and hills that have led to repeated natural disasters."