An increasing number of Chinese people are realizing that the practice of fueling rapid economic growth with excessive consumption of resources must be discarded since many kinds of resources are running short in the country.

This could be seen from the listing of "resources conservation" and "environmental protection" as state policy in the 11th Five- Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (Draft) ( 2006-2010).

"China is a big country of resources in terms of total reserves, but it is a small one if its population of 1.3 billion is taken into consideration," said Wang Shusen, a deputy to the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, which convened its annual session on March 5.

Official figures show that China's per capita possession of fresh water is only one fourth of the world average; arable land, less than 40 percent; proven coal reserves, 62 percent; proven oil reserves, 7 percent; natural gas, 4.5 percent; and forest. one fifth of the world average.

Furthermore, the per capita possession of 45 kinds of mineral resources is less than half of the world average.

A survey recently released by the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows that China ranks among the world's most wasteful users of natural resources.

The survey, listed China 54 out of 59 countries, proves that China does not fundamentally break away from its economic growth model that relies on the "intensive use" of natural resources and energy, says the report.

China has been suffering a chronic insufficiency of natural resources due to its huge population of 1.3 billion, Wang said.

"China must change the pattern of economic growth by mainly relying on high consumption of natural resources and it has to introduce the energy-saving growth model," Wang added.

"The shortage of major resources will hold back economic development to a great extent," he said.

According to media reports, excessive consumption of resources has caused serious destruction to ecological environment.

The desertification of the Hulun Buir Grasslands in north China 's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is becoming more serious due to excess land reclamation and pasturing; the rock desertification is turning worse in southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces; and the Huaihe River in central China has been polluted by factories lined along the river.

However, Yang Zhenchao, an NPC deputy and director of Anhui Economic Committee in east China, said he was happy to learn that the government has set a number of compulsory targets for energy and resources conservation, which must be met in the 2006-2010 period.

The targets listed in the draft guidelines of the five-year development blueprint being deliberated by Chinese lawmakers at the ongoing annual session include: energy consumption per unit of GDP down about 20 percent; rate of comprehensive use of solid industrial waste rises from 55.8 percent in 2005 to 60 percent in 2010; coefficient of effective use of water for irrigation up from 0.45 percent in 2005 to 0.5 percent in 2010; water consumption per unit of industrial added value down 30 percent.

"We must meet the targets, otherwise, China will be trapped in predicament that the sustainable development can not be achieved," Yang said.

He called for more efforts to be made to develop high-added value, hi-tech and high-yielding industries, promote the use of energy-saving equipment and technologies, make good use of government policies, and enhance the law enforcement capabilities of environmental protection departments," Yang said.

"That accords with the long-term interests of the country," he added.