CRI听力:Environment Protection Becomes Focus for National Advisors

Political Advisors Hand Proposals on Environment Protection 

Environmental protection is going to be one of the focus-areas for both the political advisory body and the lawmakers on the National People's Congress.

Wan Jie, a member of the national committee of CPPCC, has been collecting data from pollution sources, including a sewage treatment plant in Beijing's Shunyi District.

He said he's going to offer lawmakers suggestions about real-time environmental monitoring.

"The heavy polluters do not discharge polluted water or air all time. They do it intermittently. So if there is no real-time monitoring system, the government will have less supervision over these companies."

While the Chinese government has a phone application to map pollution, many regions still don't have real-time data about the flow of polluted air or water.

Meanwhile, Liu Weichang, another member of the CPPCC from the city of Handan in Hebei, says he plans to submit a proposal promoting the use of clean coal technology in China's rural areas.

"We should also focus on the daily coal burning which people use to keep warm during the winter in the countryside. According to the results of a survey I conducted, air pollution in these areas could be cut by around 70-percent if people start to use clean coal."

The province of Hebei has nearly 16 million families living in the rural areas.

They burn around 40 million tons of coal every year, which pumps out millions of tons of dust, as well as sulfur and carbon dioxide.

Right now over 400 proposals have already been submitted to this year's CPPCC agenda, covering a wide range of areas from environmental protection, to economic development to the rule of law, and beyond.

This year's "Lianghui," or "two-sessions," officially begins this Tuesday.

For CRI, this is Guo Yan.