There are almost 3,000 tons of human waste discharged everyday from trains around the country and it's causing a significant environmental problem along railway lines, according to a Chinanews.cn report on March 28.

The total length of China's railway lines is more than 70,000 kilometers and the number of passengers being transported annually is around 1.5 billion. 

However, despite the large increase in passenger numbers, the toilet facilities have not changed much over the years and waste is still discharged directly from moving trains.

According to calculations done by relevant specialists, as much as 3,000 tons of waste are being discharged daily from trains.

During the Spring Festival of 2006, the average daily number of train passengers reached over 4 million and the whole volume over the 40-day peak-transport period was more than 100 million. 

Song Fuxiang, associate research fellow at Jilin Beihua University, said that the waste products of both humans and animals can contain various pathogens and when exposed to high-speed air currents they spread very easily.

The State Environmental Protection Administration is taking a keen interest in the problem according to Chinanews.cn.

China has around 40,000 trains with each of them equipped with over 30 toilets. This means there are almost 1.2 million rest rooms to be updated.

(China.org.cn by Wang Ke, March 29, 2006)