China's rivers are just as priceless as the nation's most priceless cultural relics. After all, the water has been flowing for 5,000 years, too.

But industrial giants are polluting the shorelines of some of the nation's most precious river deltas. And many are hoping to develop bigger and even grander operations along the nation's coastlines. Many are willing to brave bad publicity and rebukes from environmentalists to reclaim these waterfront lands, seeing the criticism as a necessary evil to avoid the hassles and costs of acquiring property, or having to raze old buildings and relocate residents.

In most cases industries are drawn to such areas for ready access to water resources. Sadly, some are not worried about cleaning up the by-products their businesses create, which can lead to untold pollution in terms of waste discharged back into rivers and the sea.

As a result, marine life suffers, as plankton - the lowest common denominator in the critical ocean food chain - is dramatically reduced. Over the past decade, the nation's aquatic systems have faced ruin along many of China's coastal areas where ocean reclamation projects are under way, including key deltas along the Yangtze, Pearl River and Yellow River.

Changes to the environment and critical aquatic life are occurring, with fish stocks, animals and plants all suffering from blocked estuaries and waterways. Untold damage has wreaked havoc through direct destruction, causing severe flooding in many coastal areas.

While authorities correctly wish to see the nation's economic boom continue, nobody wants to see the development of an all-around, well-off society arrive at the expense of the country's environment destroyed. That is where government is beginning to play an ever-stronger role to rein in industrial giants that would choose to harm China's delicate and irreplaceable ecosystems through haphazard destruction of the coastline.

Strengthened oversight and enforcement of environmental protection laws and regulations are necessary. And as part of the effort to toughen things up, State Oceanic Administration (SOA) officials have proposed an oceanic satellite observation system to help complete an ongoing national survey of coastal areas. One must know for certain what is going bad so it can be fixed.

But the soonest the project might be completed is 2009. That may not be soon enough, if statistics maintained by the government are an indication. Indeed, over the past 10 years, nearly half of the nation's mangrove swamps and 80 per cent of China's coral reefs have already suffered damage, according to the SOA's National Marine Data and Information Service Centre.

And the country's beaches have been reduced over the past half century by about 50 per cent, with most of the damage occurring in the past few years. Other examples include Jiaozhou Bay, on the Yellow Sea in East China's Shandong Province, which has been reduced by some 35 per cent, from 535 square kilometres in 1928 to the current 367 square kilometres.

The resulting harm to the environment is evident: As many as 54 kinds of marine life populated the estuary in the 1960s, while a survey in the 1980s showed only 17 still survive.

It is clear that a new way of thinking must be established when it comes to the nation's shorelines. One successful example of this has been in East China's Shandong Province, where six natural protection areas along its coastline are effectively protecting marine resources and the local environment, provincial officials say.

An area of 101,000 hectares is now being regularly inspected and monitored. Firms that are found to be polluting the sea, including power plants and fish-processing factories, are levied with fines and ordered to install expensive pollution-control equipment.

Seven coastal cities and four key counties boast ocean protection stations and officers on patrol, partly as a result of the ocean and coastal regulations that took effect last year. The key, officials say, is convincing businesses that they have a moral obligation to protect and even increase the diversity of life in the province's oceans, bays, estuaries and coastal wetlands, all while attempting to keep the water clean.

It is this attitude that must be adopted nationwide. The central government and coastal provinces must protect the country's precious environment with the same enthusiasm and zeal they have exhibited when it comes to the nation's valuable cultural relics.

Time is of the essence, or we will all pay a price too dear to imagine.