BEIJING (AFP) - Two major pollution indicators have dropped in China for the first time in several years as steps taken to clean up the nation's devastated environment kicked in, the government said Wednesday.
Emissions of sulfur dioxide -- a key air pollutant -- declined 1.81 percent in the first nine months of the year, while chemical oxygen demand -- a measure of water pollution -- was 0.28 percent lower, said Zhou Shengxian, director of the state environment watchdog.
The two key measures had become symbols of China's inability to curb the rampant fouling of its air and water.
China had set a target of reducing each indicator by 10 percent between 2006 and 2010, or an average decline of two percent a year. But embarrassed officials admitted earlier this year that both had risen in 2006.