Guangzhou will build a disposal depot for medical waste before 2010, a plan for the environmental protection in the Pearl River Delta area revealed.

The Guangdong provincial government has approved the plan, which aims to tackle worsening pollution and make Delta cities ecologically-friendly by 2020.

Guangdong currently has no disposal facility for medical waste. The plan also calls for a facility to detoxify 20 tons of medical waste a day by the year 2010.

Other facilities will also be built to treat hazardous waste, electronic material and solid industrial waste.

The Delta area has been plagued by a record concentration of smog this year.

Thirty-six small coal-fired power plants in Guangzhou will be shut down before 2007, according to the plan. A number of major polluters such as Guangzhou Power Plant and Guangzhou Petrochemical Factory will be put on a high-alert watch list by the environmental watchdogs.

About 60 percent of sewage in Guangzhou would be treated before being discharged into rivers before 2007, the plan says.

The Baiyun Mountain-Maofeng Mountain area would be listed as a protected zone, reinforcing its status as the green core of the city.

For the whole area, 15 mountains and wetlands will be declared protected nature reserves by 2010.

By that time, energy consumption attributable to GDP will be slashed by half, according to the plan, which is a reflection of the province shifting its development strategy from pure GDP growth to sustainable growth.

(China Daily November 12, 2004)