Ž . The Environmentalist 19, 251257 1999  1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston. Manufactured in the Netherlands. Environmental impact assessment in the People’s Republic of China: a case study of the Shanghai Second Sewerage Project SARAH HOYLE, SHAHED POWER AND SIMON HUTCHINSON* Telford Institute for En  ironmental Systems, Department of En  ironmental Resources, Uni  ersity of Salford, Salford, M6 6PU, UK Summary. In March 1994, China announced its plans for sustainable development in a White Paper entitled ‘China’s Strategy for Population, Environment and Development in the 21st Century.’ To achieve the objective of sustainable development; economic, social and environmental aims have to be consistent with each other and meet the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development, therefore, encompasses many ‘ideals,’ which need to be introduced through practical management techniques. This paper addresses the role that EIA could play in promoting sustainable development projects in the People’s Republic of China by way of the detailed examination of a case study the Shanghai Second Sewerage Project. Introduction Ž . Environmental Impact Assessment EIA is a process of identification, prediction and evalua- tion of a project’s impact on the environment and is, essentially, an aid to the decision-makers re- sponsible for planning. It could also be manipu- lated into a management tool for environmental sustainability so that a project will be both eco- nomically and environmentally sound. If a pro- ject, in its design and operation, was perceived to be resource depleting and potentially pose a threat to the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, EIA could be used to identify ways of mitigating ‘unsustainable’ impacts and replace them with more ‘sustainable’ alternatives. The EIA can thus be used as a method of eliminating or controlling undesirable development activities. In the People’s Republic of China, an EIA system is in place. EIA investigations for larger projects over a fixed level of cost, for example, those which belong to State-run and key enterprises, are the responsibility of the State Environmental Protection Agency. Other, lower cost projects, are *Shahed Power and Simon Hutchinson are both Lecturers in the Department of Environmental Resources, University of Salford. Sarah Hoyle is a postgraduate within the department. under the jurisdiction of Environmental Protec- tion Bureaux at the provincial or municipal levels Ž see Ning et al., 1988, Wenger et al., 1990 and Hoyle, 1997 for further details of the EIA process . in China . If EIA is to be successful in managing ‘unsus- tainable’ projects, it will need to be effective throughout its whole process. The effectiveness of the EIA process in China will be evaluated through the detailed examination of a particular project. Case study: The Shanghai Second Sewerage Project; Bailonggang deep water outfall Introduction The Shanghai, ‘Greater Shanghai’ and Chang Ž . Jiang Yangtze Delta region is one of the most rapidly developing areas in China, especially in the last decade with ‘limited,’ economic liberalisa- tion of parts of the area. This has dramatically increased the rate and extent of industrialisation and urbanisation in an area with one of the highest population densities in the world. The delta region has a population of over 100 million. In 1996, Shanghai had an estimated population of