Northwest China's Shaanxi Province is planning to spend 45 billion yuan (US$5.56 billion) on environmental protection, with much of the money earmarked for cleaning up the Weihe River.

The scheme has been set out in the Shaanxi Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau's draft 2006-10 development plan.

Industrial renovation, air and water pollution control and research into green technologies are just some of the areas tackled by eight key projects set to run over the next five years, said Li Xingmin, deputy director of the bureau, in an interview with China Daily on Tuesday.

But the major task between 2006 and 2010 will be cleaning-up the Weihe River, said Li.

"One-tenth of the total investment for provincial environment protection projects in the coming five years will go on the Weihe protection project," said Zhang Jindong, an official with the Planning and Investment Department of the provincial bureau.

Every year, some 80,000 tons of sewage are pumped into the Weihe, the biggest branch of the Yellow River.

That sewage has become one of biggest sources of pollution in the Yellow River, China's second largest river, Zhang said.

Environmental protection experts estimate that sewage from the Weihe accounts for 18 percent of all pollution in the Yellow River.

Cleaning up the Weihe is a great step towards guaranteeing water quality in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, they added.

The Weihe itself is more than 800 kilometers long, starting in Gansu Province's Weiyuan County.

The river's basin is home to 64 percent of Shaanxi's population and 72 percent of the province's irrigated farmland, according to Si Quanyin, chief engineer of the provincial environmental protection Bureau.

"The river is also the only sewage drainage channel in central Shaanxi, receiving 80 percent of the province's industrial and domestic sewage," Si added.

In August, the provincial government put in place strict measures to control pollution in the river, aiming to clean up the waterway within five or six years.

Steps taken included closing small paper factories and building more sewage treatment factories as well as strictly controlling water resource development and use, Si said.

Shaanxi's efforts to better protect its water resources are part of the central government's environment protection plans for the 2006-10 period.

According to Si, experts reckon pollution in the Yellow River should be solved in the next five years.

(China Daily November 24, 2005)