East China's Jiangxi Province is in dire need of controlling acid rain, which is increasing and has incurred losses to local economic development.

Acid rain caused the provincial gross domestic product (GDP) to decline by 8 billion yuan (some US$964 million) in 2003, said local statistics bureau.

Acid rain was detected on about 61.5 percent of local rainy days in 2003, 5.6 percentage points higher than the level for 2002,and accounted for 64.2 percent of local total precipitation.

The province measured an average 4.66 pH value for local rainfall throughout the year 2003, down from a 4.89 pH value in 2002. The international standard for determining acid rain is a pH value of 5.6 and below.

As many as 90 percent of cities in Jiangxi suffered from acid rain pollution in 2003, with the most serious situation occurring in Pingxiang City where the rainfall pH value averaged only 3.67, and the year's highest pH value of 5.8 occurring in the city of Xinyu.

(Xinhua News Agency May 14, 2004)