The country is expected to spend billions in the next decade to curb the problem of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), Xinhua quoted an environment official as saying yesterday in Beijing.

Zhuang Guotai, deputy director of the Stockholm Convention Implementation Office under the State Environment Protection Administration, said that in order to fulfil the already-drafted implementation plan, the country will have to spend at least 34 billion yuan (US$4.25 billion) within the next decade.

Zhuang said the number was just a "rough" figure and does not include the money needed to treat land that has been polluted by POPs.

POPs are chemicals that remain intact in the environment for long periods.

They are widely distributed geographically and can accumulate in the fatty tissue of living organisms and are toxic to humans and wildlife, said Tang Xiaoyan, director of the Environmental Science Centre of the Peking University.

"The reduction of a man's sperm count and the feminization of men are believed to be highly linked to POPs," she said.

The Stockholm Convention is an international agreement on POPs initiated in 2001. In implementing the Convention, governments will take measures to eliminate or reduce the release of POPs into the environment.

According to the plan, by 2010, the country will have to ban the production and use of chlordane, mirex and DDT, three kinds of pesticides that are listed among the 12 kinds of POPs that need to be reduced in the Convention.

And by 2015, the country will finish the work of proper treatment of the vast amount of obsolete electric power equipment, mainly transformers made with materials containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a toxic substance that may contaminate the ground, Zhuang said.

Another goal is to try to stabilize the country's emission of dioxin by 2015, a carcinogenic substance that is mainly produced by incomplete burning of urban refuse or improper treatment of chemical waste through burning.

Zhuang revealed that the draft plan will be submitted for approval by the State Council next month, and nationwide co-ordination work for its implementation has already kicked off.

China joined the Convention in 2001 and it began to be effective in 2004 after the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress approved it.

Zhuang admitted that the country faces both opportunities and difficulties in meeting the goals.

"Lack of related laws to regulate the treatment and control of POPs, unclear vision of the total amount of POPs, backward technology in pollutant emission reduction, lack of substitutes and shortage of funds are just a few of the problems we are facing," he said.

"But through our implementation of the Convention, we can force domestic companies to upgrade their technology level and prod them to make changes in industrial structure in a more environment-friendly direction," he said.

(China Daily 06/22/2006 page2)