Last week the World Bank approved a Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant of US$1 million to assist China in its emergency response in the Wenchuan Earthquake.

This project aims to support the country's emergency responses to the Wenchuan Earthquake by identifying and assessing potential environmental impacts and risks associated with the releases of hazardous chemicals and waste in five out of a total of 40 hardest hit counties in Sichuan Province.

Specifically, the project will facilitate (a) identification of major sources of hazardous chemicals and wastes, including, but not limited to, chemical plants, landfills, and hazardous chemicals/waste storage and disposal sites that have been damaged by the earthquake; (b) preliminary site assessment of the diffusion of toxic chemicals into the environment and their potential impacts and risks to human health and the environment; (c) recommendations on mitigation priorities to the assessed sites; and (d) timely dissemination of monitoring results to the general public and training the general public on necessary safeguards measures.

This project is an integral part of a large project on Post Earthquake Environmental Safety Assessment and Counter Measures led by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) of China to evaluate the full range of environmental impacts and risks caused by the Earthquake.

This project is also coordinated closely with the overall Bank's support to China through a grant from the Global Facility for Disaster Recovery and Reconstruction (GFDRR). The GFDRR grant will support the evaluation of earthquake damages and assess needs for recovery and reconstruction. The outputs of these activities will be fed, as appropriate, into later phases of the Bank's support for recovery and reconstruction in the earthquake area.

The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China together with the Sichuan Environmental Protection Bureau.

(China Development Gateway July 9, 2008)