China's chief environment official Zhou Shengxian on Tuesday reiterated a six-point plan to tackle water pollution in the country's ailing rivers and lakes.

CAPPING EMISSIONS

"To contain water pollution, we should, firstly, continue to strictly control the discharge of various pollutants," Zhou, director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua.

He revealed maximum levels of pollutant emissions would be set for different regions in China. "All the new and existing projects should not produce more pollutants than the stipulated amount."

"Regions that fail to keep their pollutant emissions within the limit will not be allowed to embark on new projects except for environmentally-friendly ones," Zhou said.

He also said that, starting from 2010, tougher emission standards would be adopted for key drinking water resources and during the dry seasons.

STEPPING UP MONITORING

Zhou said the administration would improve the monitoring of heavy polluting industries and step up efforts to reduce industrial waste.

"Starting from 2009, all enterprises which discharge pollutants must obtain environmental permits. Otherwise, they will not be allowed to start operation.

"Enterprises guilty of environmental violations or failing to meet pollutant discharge requirements will not be allowed to list on the stock market. Listed companies should open up their environmental records to public scrutiny," Zhou said.

"We will speed up industrial restructuring to ensure that the target of phasing out outdated techniques, equipment and products will be fulfilled by the end of 2010," he said.

TACKLING RURAL POLLUTION

Zhou said China will step up measures to control pollution caused by farming.

"Sewage systems in rural areas must be improved. The use of chemical fertilizers should be gradually reduced. And newly built or renovated poultry farms must pass environmental assessments," Zhou said.

URBAN SEWAGE TREATMENT

Zhou said the administration will also continue to increase sewage handling capacity in cities.

"All the newly built sewage processing factories must be equipped with de-nitrogen facilities and existing factories must complete the renovation of such facilities before the end of 2010," Zhou said.

From January to September this year, China's daily sewage handling capacity in cities went up 9 million tons.

PROTECTING DRINKING WATER AND IMPLEMENTING SCIENCE

Zhou also listed other important aspects in combating water pollution, including enhancing the protection of drinking water resources and improving scientific assessments of water exploitation projects.

Zhou said he hoped the quality of all of China's key dinking water resources would reach national standards by 2008, and by 2010, 70 percent of urban sewage would be processed before being discharged and the chemical oxygen demand emissions will drop by 10 percent from 2005.

"From a long-term perspective, our target for China's rivers is to resume their natural appearance. The ecological system should maintain a virtuous circle and all rivers should flow calmly along their natural course," Zhou said.

The minister said China is well aware of the grim situation it faces in combating water pollution as high energy-consuming, water-consuming and polluting industries are still expanding rapidly and there has been no obvious decline in water pollutant discharges so far.

"Serious water pollution has affected people's health and social stability and become the bottleneck thwarting China's sound and rapid economic and social development," Zhou said.

A survey in 2006 showed that surface water in China generally suffered from medium pollution. One third of the 744 samples of the surface water were graded "V", the worst polluted.

In addition, China has more than 20,000 chemical factories, of which almost half are located along the Yangtze River and 3,800 along the Yellow River. Once accidents happen, large areas of the rivers are polluted.

Zhou said China's central authorities have listed water protection as a key task in achieving sustainable development.

In his political report to the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in October, Hu Jintao, CPC Central Committee General Secretary, said China will "promote conservation culture while moving to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects".

Zhou said Hu's report indicated that, as a basic national policy, environmental protection has truly begun to play a key role in the country's economic and social development.

China's environmental watchdog, in recent years, has launched a series of campaigns to prevent the country's environment from deteriorating further.

In its latest move in July, the SEPA issued a policy, which forced local authorities in areas along the country's four major rivers to prioritize its environmental protection above economic gain.

Local authorities in six cities, two counties and five industrial zones -- all in the vicinity of the Yellow, Yangtze, Huaihe and Haihe rivers -- were given three months to rectify their "environmental problems".

The campaign has led to the closure, suspension and renovation of more than 700 enterprises and projects by September. About 725 million yuan (about 98 million U.S. dollars) of delayed pollution fees were also recovered.