[originaltext] More than half of 500 Chinese cities failed to meet national

More than half of 500 Chinese cities failed to meet national air quality standards last year.
    The areas suffered potentially harmful air quality, a survey of 500 cities by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) claims. And nearly one-third of non-industrial sewage in the cities went untreated. In 193 other cities, no treatment was carded out at all, the report revealed. The findings are likely to cause widespread concern.
    As urbanization speeds up in China, it poses increasing pressure on the urban environment, and the Chinese Government has given top priority to environmental protection in cities. But given the latest findings, such protection has yet to yield notable results.
    There are 661 cities in China—home to 41.7 percent of the population. They also generate 65.5 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product—but all at a huge cost to the environment.
    Wang Jirong, vice-minister of the Administration, told journalists in Beijing, "In the past two decades, China has been facing environmental problems which developed countries met with over one century ago."
    Making reasonable development plans, building sufficient and effectively operated infrastructure and continuing the improvement of the urban environment are among the recommended measures, SEPA’s release said. The Administration started to examine environmental management and improvement in 1989.
    According to Wang Yuqing, joint SEPA vice-minister, the number of complaints about environmental problems in China has been growing by 30 percent annually, showing that pollution has a serious impact on the quality of life of the public.