From Chinese Press

Leave sea coasts as they are

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-07-05 07:53

Of late, some coastal cities are on a spree to reclaim land from the sea to make space for new building constructions, which is contrary to the central government's efforts to cool down the real estate market. Such reclamations are nothing but blind pursuit of profit, says an article on rednet.cn. Excerpts:

Some local governments' policy to reclaim land runs counter to the national policy. The ineffectiveness of some laws has prompted a few gold diggers to "cooperate" with some local governments and realty developers to reclaim land on the country's coastline turning the waters, supposed to be public resources, into a profit-making machine.

The dearth of land along the sea has encouraged some people to reclaim land to build sea-facing high-rises that fetch them huge amounts of money.

Besides, the deviation from the central government's overall sea coast policy has changed some people's consumption orientation. If such activities are not stopped in time, the national sea coast policy would be undermined.

Reclamation will disturb the ecological balance and aggravate coastal erosion and silting of river mouths, affecting the capacity of rivers to flush out excess water and ultimately cause more floods.

The authorities should raise the penalty for illegal use of marine resources to stop this malpractice.

(China Daily 07/05/2011 page9)