Eighty-four percent of China's sewage outfalls are discharging excessive pollutants directly into the sea, causing severe damage to its offshore eco-system, according to the observation results released by the State Oceanic Administration (SOA).

An official with SOA said natural ecological conditions of China's main estuaries, bays and coastal wetlands are negatively affected.

In order to get enough information about the pollution discharged from the land, SOA's organs at various levels have conducted comprehensive monitoring since 2005.

The results show the aggregate amount of sewage that ran from the land to the sea in 2005 totaled 31.7 billion tons, containing 14.63 million tons of pollutants such as nutrient salt and fecal bacteria.

More than 90 percent of sewage outfalls in each of the following five provincial-level coastal regions like Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Zhejiang and Guangdong are over-discharging harmful pollutants into neighboring seas.

(Xinhua News Agency February 3, 2006)