According to a recent environmental survey, 82 percent of people care about food safety; 34 percent have been affected by polluted drinking water and 42 percent care about air pollution.

Wang Xinpu, general secretary of China's Environmental Cultural Promotion Association, said the survey shows that people are only 60 percent "environmentally aware" when they should be 100 percent aware.

The survey, entitled "The Chinese Public's Awareness of Environmental Protection and Livelihood Index 2006", was published on Monday.

Wang Xinpu says the index shows that those who are highly aware of environmental issues are often willing to participate in environmental protection activities while those who are not aware of the issue take no stand at all.

Wei Dongying is an ordinary female peasant in a village in Hangzhou in east China's Zhejiang province. Her investigations and efforts have led to 13 enterprises that discharged untreated pollutants being ordered to treat their pollutants or else cease operations.

Chen Faqing is a farmer in Yuhang district in Hangzhou. In order to make people more environmentally aware, he not only sold his own car to reduce emissions, but does everything possible to popularize environmental awareness. Despite pressure and intimidation, he is fighting those who violate environmental regulations and is pushing for the completion of environmental protection laws. He has established a website for environmental protection. (www.nmcfq.com)

And they are not the only ones. More and more Chinese people are starting to report polluting enterprises. In 2006, 600,000 people reported irresponsible pollution to relevant departments, 30 percent more than in the previous year.

Food safety, drinking water safety and air pollution have become the biggest concerns of ordinary Chinese. A massive 82 percent of people have said they care about the food problem. Approximately 81 percent of people care about drinking water and 73 percent of people interviewed worry about air pollution.

Most people think the pollution of the environment is severely impacting people's health.

Last year there were many instances of poisoning caused by soil and water pollution. This has aroused great attention from the public.

Statistics show that about 300 million Chinese people in rural areas do not have access to clean drinking water. This is because of man-made pollutants. Many people say they have witnessed incidents of water pollution and air pollution.

The survey found that in 11 big cities including Lanzhou, Datong, Linfen, Urumuqi and Beijing, pollution was a problem more than one third of the year. Approximately 15 million people have been affected by pollution.

Due to air pollution, traffic jams and noise pollution, many city people are dissatisfied with their living environment. Approximately 10 percent of people believe the cities are not inhabitable.

About half of the interviewees in rural areas said that had witnessed cases of serious pollution. Every year, 120 million tons of rubbish are disposed of in rural areas. These pollutants are discharged in the open and 25 million tons of waste water is discharged there without treatment. The environment quality is seriously deteriorating in these areas.

As of January 10, the State Environmental Protection Administration had stopped 82 projects that had flouted environmental protection regulations. They included projects in iron and steel, electricity and metal, with a combined total investment of 112 billion yuan or US$14 billion. Some regions, industries and large enterprises whose projects did not pass an environmental impact assessment are also facing restrictions.

The survey found that more than half the people believe the central government is greatly concerned about environmental protection. The government's environmental protection policies have been widely recognized by the public. However, they think more needs to be done.

By People's Daily Online