China's top pollution watchdog will demand officials report toxic spills within an hour, the official People's Daily said yesterday, as it named and shamed 11 companies for pollution.
"With such a reporting system, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) will keep the public updated with the latest and accurate information," the agency Web site notice quoted an unnamed spokesman for the agency as saying. "This disclosure system will protect the public's right to know about the environment."
An unnamed official from SEPA told the paper that officials and executives who delayed reporting or covered up "sudden environmental incidents" may face criminal prosecution.
PHOTO: AP
But the official also warned that China will find it near impossible to avoid serious accidents even after a chemical spill in November galvanized national concern about the ecological damage that has accompanied China's industrial boom.
"Due to the geographic distribution of environmental threats and structural environmental risks, high-risk conditions for sudden environmental incidents will continue for some time to come," the official said.
The spill in the Songhua River in far northeast China came after a blast at a chemical plant near its banks poured 90 tonnes of cancer-causing benzene into the river.
It led to the shutting of water taps in the cities and towns of Heilongjiang Province, as well as emergency measures in Russia, where the river flows.
"The Songhua River incident was a major challenge and a big test," SEPA vice director Pan Yue (
"We paid a dear price, but we also gained some new wisdom, new ways of thinking and new motivation," he added.
Pan named 11 companies for failing to prevent pollution at their factories, including riverside smelters and chemical plants, in the administration's latest push to prevent more environmental crises.
The 11 companies, as well as 10 factories and infrastructure projects under construction, had to clean up their acts quickly or face fines and orders to stop production, he said.
SEPA received official reports of 45 other pollution accidents in the two and a half months after the Songhua spill, and nine were caused by factories illegally expelling pollutants, the unnamed official told the People's Daily.
He said that factories "only concern themselves with their immediate interests", ignoring pollution hazards. He cited a smelter in southern China's Guangdong province that dumped poisonous chemicals into the Beijiang River in mid-December.
The government's response to the Songhua River spill has been widely criticized, leading to the early December resignation of former SEPA head Xie Zhenhua (
Lawsuits have also been filed, mostly aimed at officials in Jilin Province where the chemical plant that released the benzene is located.
But SEPA officials said at the time they received no reports from Jilin Province officials for three days after the blast.
The Chinese government has promised to improve China's environmental safeguards and spent billions of yuan on cleaning up the country's rivers.
But the state-controlled Workers Daily reported yesterday that 4.55 billion yuan (US$564 million) spent over 14 years on cleaning up the Dianchi Lake in southwest China's Yunnan province has done little to improve water quality.
Stretches of the 310km2 lake still have water quality that is Grade 5 or worse, making it unsuitable for any human contact or even irrigation, a local environmental official told the paper.
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