CHINA: China's worsening environment is forcing its way on to the political agenda as more pollution means less growth, officials say.
The economic cost of pollution could equal 10 per cent of the country's gross domestic product.
"The figure is not very accurate due to great difficulties in carrying out related research and analysis, but it can give us a rough idea," Zhu Guangyao, deputy head of the State Environmental Protection Administration, told state media.
Wary of the destabilising social effects of environmental degradation, Beijing has made combating the destruction of the country's rivers and cleaning up the dirty air a major priority.
Beijing issued the White Paper on protecting the environment this week.
It said the conflict between environment and development was getting worse and a shortage of resources, a fragile ecology and insufficient environmental capacity were becoming critical problems hindering China's development.
China's environment has borne the brunt of the country's remarkable economic rise of recent years.
Coal-fired power stations, still the country's main power supply, belch fumes into the air and the factories building the cheap goods fuelling the economic boom produce large-scale waste.
The World Bank says 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in China and Beijing is among them. Beijing residents were warned this week to start taking action to save water or face a massive shortage of 1.1 billion cubic metres of water by the time the Olympics roll around in 2008.
The government is prepared to "seed" the clouds over Beijing to make sure that it has enough rain and is clear of pollution before and during the Olympics. The capital has suffered from a seven-year drought and last month it was choked by poisonous dust storms.
It has become a tradition in Beijing to seed the clouds, usually by firing chemicals into them from aircraft to make it rain, ahead of major public holidays such as May Day and National Day.
The rain disperses pollution, clears dust and ensures crystal clear skies for a military drive-past or a gathering of delegates for the National People's Congress.
Weather specialists induced rain in early May in Beijing to help relieve drought and wash tonnes of dust from the Gobi desert which was dumped on the capital by a rash of sandstorms.
In the last five years, Chinese air force jets have flown nearly 3,000 flights and sowed rainmaking chemicals to bring down 210 billion cubic metres of water over three million square kilometres, nearly a third of China's territory.
China has pitched the Beijing Olympics as the green Olympics and they will be viewed around the world as a showcase for efforts to combat pollution and encourage sustainable energy use.
The joke commonly heard in Beijing is that the government will close the factories and coal-fired power plants near the city for the duration of the Olympics to make sure of blue skies.
The White Paper pledged significant improvement by 2010, improving air quality and bringing environmental deterioration under control by reducing the discharge of major pollutants and raising forest coverage.