BEIJING, Dec 24 (AFP) - China’s capital wants to cleanup its act before the 2008 Summer Olympics, findingbetter ways to dispose of its millions of tonnes ofgarbage, officials said Wednesday.
We want to host the most wonderful Games inhistory,'' Chen Wenzhan, director of the Beijingmunicipal administrative committee, told a briefing. To hold the Olympics, we not only need good stadiumsbut also a great environment,’’ he said.
That is a tall order, because the city of 13 millionproduces a total of 4.2 million tonnes of garbage every year, 90 percent ofwhich gets buried.
To realize its ambitions, the city government plans tobuild 15 new garbage treatment facilities capable ofdisposing of 12,500 tonnes of rubbish every day.
Environmental issues have been put on the frontburneras Beijing gets ready to host the world’s biggest sportsevent.
A total of 3.6 billion dollars has been earmarked forinvestment in environmental and other transportationprojects.
The city is undertaking 20 major environmentalprojects, including replacing coal with natural gas,curbing car exhaust emissions, planting trees andtreating sewage.
Medical waste, totaling 40 tonnes a day, poses aparticular problem after the outbreak of Severe AcuteRespiratory Syndrome (SARS) earlier this year, whichkilled a total of 193 people in Beijing.
The SARS epidemic forced city officials to pay moreattention to the treatment of medical waste, which waspreviously up to the individual hospitals.
Now, it is all transported to three central locations,where professional waste-disposal companies handle it ina safer manner, officials said at the briefing.
In the years leading up to Olympics, the citygovernment plans to build two centralized disposalfacilities for medical waste, with a capacity ofhandling 65 tonnes day, they said.
How about cleaning up the appalling human rights record!
what country in the world doesnt have an appalling human rights record?
maybe it gets more airplay in china cuz theyre still commies, and as we no, commies are bad, mmmmmkay
LOL!!!
When I think of poor human rights records and shocking foreign policy…I think of the U.S.A… Oh well, what can ya do.
Where would YOU prefer to be on trial?(leaving out Texas!)
Most of the brothers here in Texas would agree with you on that call.
Hey here in Massachusetts we got Sampson going downtown! Go Mitt!