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Statistical communique of national and social development in 2004 XII. Resources and Environment With the implementation of scientific concept of development strategy, 2004 saw greater input in resources and environment protection. Some progress was made in effective utilization of resources and protection of environment. Nevertheless, there was increasing pressure on the environment as high consumption and huge waste of resources became increasingly noticeable. Achievement was made in strengthening land resource management. Administration and consolidation of land market revealed unreported use of 148,000 hectares of farmland for construction purpose in the past. The whole year saw 145,000 hectares of farmland appropriated for actual construction, down 37.0 per cent over the previous year. Some 63,000 hectares of cultivated land was destroyed by disasters. A total of 733,000 hectares of farmland was converted into land for ecological preservation. Structural adjustment in agriculture production led to a reduction of 205,000 hectares of cultivated land. On the other hand, land reclamation and re-development projects added over 346,000 hectares of cultivated land. As a result, 2004 saw a net reduction of 800,000 hectares of cultivated land. Per capita water resources were 2,040 cubic metres in 2004, down 4.0 per cent compared with 2003. The annual average precipitation was 620 millimetres, down 2.8 per cent. The 422 large reservoirs in China stored 175.8 billion cubic metres of water at the end of 2004, or 7 billion cubic metres more than that at the end of 2003. Total water consumption in 2004 was 550 billion cubic metres, up 3.4 per cent over the previous year, of which, water consumption for municipal use rose by 2.2 per cent; for industrial use, up by 2.8 per cent; and for agricultural use, up by 3.8 per cent. Per capita water consumption was 423 cubic metres on average, up by 3.0 per cent. There were 79 cities facing the shortage of water. Some 23.4 million people and 13 million large domestic animals experienced temporary difficulty in shortage of drinking water. The sixth enumeration of the nation's forest resources (1999-2003) demonstrated that the total forest area was 175 million hectares, and the forest coverage rate was 18.21 per cent. The total standing stock volume was 13.62 billion cubic metres, and the stock volume of the forest was 12.46 billion cubic metres. National land and resources surveys and geological explorations discovered a total of 205 new mineral deposits in large or medium size, including 24 energy mineral deposits, 66 metal mines, 113 non-metal mines and two water or gas minerals deposits. Increased reserves were found for 56 minerals, including 1,098 million tons of crude oil, 380.2 billion cubic metres of natural gas and 9,654 million tons of coal. Preliminary estimation indicated that the total energy consumption in 2004 amounted to 1,970 million tons of standard coal equivalent, up by 15.2 per cent over 2003. Of this total, the consumption of coal was 1,870 million tons, up 14.4 per cent, the consumption of crude oil was 290 million tons, up 16.8 per cent, that of natural gas 41.5 billion cubic metres, up 18.5 per cent, that of hydroelectric power 328 billion kilo-watt hours, up 15.6 per cent, and that of nuclear power 50.1 billion kilo-watt hours, up 15.6 per cent. The consumption of major raw materials included 310 million tons of rolled steel, up 15.1 per cent; 12.84 million tons of aluminum oxide, up 9.7 per cent; and 960 million tons of cement, up 12.4 per cent. Energy consumption for producing 10,000 yuan worth of GDP was 1.58 tons of standard coal equivalent, up 5.3 per cent. Monitoring of water quality on 413 sections of the seven major water systems in China showed that 41.6 per cent of sections satisfied the national quality standard of Grade III for surface water, up 3.5 percentage points over the previous year; 30.5 per cent met the quality of Grade IV or V, down by 1.7 percentage points; and 27.9 per cent were below Grade V, down by 1.8 percentage points. Pearl River and Yangtze River proved good water quality whereas the water quality in Haihe River, Liaohe River, Yellow River, Huaihe River and Songhuajiang River was relatively poor. Monitoring of marine water quality at 246 offshore monitoring stations indicated that the marine water met the national quality standard Grade I and II in 49.6 per cent of stations, maintaining the same level as in the previous year; it met Grade III in 15.4 per cent of the stations, down by 4.4 per cent; and marine water with Grade IV or inferior was found in 35.0 per cent of stations, up by 5 percentage points. A total of 169,000 square kilometres of seawater did not meet the quality standard of clean seawater, up by 19.0 per cent over the previous year. Of this total, seriously polluted sea area accounted for 32,000 square kilometres. Monitoring in 15 marine ecology monitoring zones showed that major thalassic, estuarine and wetlands ecosystem were in quasi-healthy or unhealthy conditions. The daily municipal sewage treatment capacity reached 74.02 million cube metres, up 11.7 per cent. The central heating areas amounted to 2.05 billion square metres, up 8.4 per cent. Forest coverage rate in built-up areas reached 32.3 per cent, up 1.1 percentage points. Municipal sewage treatment rate was 43.6 per cent, up 1.2 percentage points. In the 319 monitored cities, 132 cities had their air quality reach standard Grade II, accounting for 41.4 per cent of all the monitored cities, the same as in the previous year; 119 cities attained Grade III, accounting for 37.3 per cent of the total, up by 5.5 per cent over the previous year. Air quality in 68 cities was inferior to Grade III, accounting for 21.3 per cent of the total monitored, or down 5.5 per cent. In the 328 cities under road noise monitoring, 2.1 per cent of cities had serious noise pollution, 5.2 per cent had medium noise pollution and 9.1 per cent had light noise pollution. Steady progress was made in ecologic environment construction. Water break has not occurred for the fifth consecutive year on the Yellow River. Contingent water transmission has been made for 3 consecutive years from Tarim River to Taitema Lake in its lower reaches. Heihe River transmitted water for 6 times to East Juyanhai Lake. The total afforested area in 2004 was 7,167,000 hectares. By the end of 2004, China had approved the establishment of 166 national ecological demonstration zones, and 2,194 natural reserves, of which, 226 national natural reserves. The area of natural reserves totalled 148,226,000 hectares, accounting for 14.8 per cent of surface area of China. There were 85 national geological parks, and 27 new geological relics preservation zones were set up. Some 49,000 square kilometres of soil were conserved through comprehensive anti-erosion projects. And a total of 110,000 square kilometres were closed for nurturing and protection in areas under anti-erosion projects. In 2004, floods, water-logging and droughts caused 97.5 billion yuan (US$11.7 billion) worth of direct economic losses, a decrease of 50.0 per cent. The death toll in floods and storms in coastal areas was 1,282. Natural disasters hit 37,106,000 hectares of crops, down by 31.8 per cent over the previous year, of which, 4.36 million hectares of crops were demolished, down by 49.0 per cent. Economic losses directly caused by marine-related disasters totalled 5.4 billion yuan (US$650 million), down 32.6 per cent. The occurrence of 96 red tides in the year (23 less as compared with in 2003) hit an accumulative area of 26,630 square kilometers, up 83.0 per cent. China registered 15,954 geological disasters of various types in the year, claiming 697 lives and causing a direct economic loss of 2.06 billion yuan. The country recorded 22 earthquakes with magnitude 5 and over on the Richter scale, causing 8 deaths and a direct economic losses of 950 million yuan. The year 2004 witnessed 568,000 traffic accidents, killing 99,000 people, injuring 452,000 and causing a direct property loss of 2.77 billion yuan. (National Bureau of Statistics of China)
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