Various forms of ecological protection activities and environmental projects were launched around China Tuesday, as the country marked the World Environment Day.

Beijing's largest industrial pollution treatment project, the Beijing Thermoelectricity Plant desulfuration renovation, kicked off construction Tuesday.

The 200-million-yuan project is expected to reduce the discharge of sulfur dioxide by the plant by some 10,000 tons annually upon its completion by the year 2002.

The project was undertaken by the Beijing National Electricity Environmental Protection Engineering Co. through public bidding. It was the first such desulfuration project undertaken by a Chinese state-owned company.

The thermoelectricity plant is the major power and heating provider in the national capital, and also a big polluter, producing 30 percent of coal emission and 40 percent of sulfur dioxide discharge in the Shijingshan District.

Meanwhile, a regional ecosphere recovery drive is being carried out in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province. The project, with the focus on adjusting industrial distribution and technological upgrading, will make sure that some 27,060 industrial producers in the region stick to the state-required pollution discharge standards.

Facing a severe water shortage, Hebei is making the cleaning up of water pollution another priority item. As a part of the project, reforestation and eco-agriculture programs will enable the green coverage rate to reach 19 percent, and involve the establishment of 12 ecology reserves covering 12.86 ha.

In Tianjin, volunteers organized street consultation and publicity campaigns on environmental knowledge. Two garbage- collecting boats donated by an environmentalist attracted a large audience on the Haihe River, which runs through the city.

Environmentalists in Guizhou Province in southwest China called on the public to show concern for wildlife habitats. So far, the province has some 100,000 registered youth volunteers, who have taken part in an activity to protect Caohai Lake, a black-necked crane habitat in the province.

In Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, an ecological Internet portal was opened to mark World Environment Day. The Website offers information on green consumption, environmental business services and related news and technology.

Zhou Shiwu, a retired worker in Sichuan, was given the "Earth Award" today by the Friends of the Earth, an environmental protection organization based in Hong Kong.

Zhou has spent eight years conducting independent research on breeding four of the world's 10 most endangered fish species, including the Chinese sturgeon and paddlefish.

(People's Daily 06/06/2001)