China's environmental watchdog froze industrial development along parts of four filthy rivers to force a clean-up but indicated corruption may thwart the effort, news reports said yesterday.
No new projects will be approved by the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) in 13 locations along the Yangtze, Yellow, Huaihe and Haihe rivers, the agency's vice minister Pan Yue (潘岳) told the China Daily newspaper.
A total of 32 heavily polluting factories and six wastewater plants were ordered to clean up in three months so local development could resume, it said.
But Pan noted that some local officials collude with big industrial companies at the cost of the environment.
Environmental inspectors have been stopped at factory gates, and some plants reopen even though the agency shut them down, the report said.
Pan said that a quarter of the length of the country's seven main river systems are so polluted that even touching the water is harmful to the skin, the China Youth Daily reported.
Seven of the nine major lakes the agency monitors were equally toxic.
"This series of dark statistics shows that traditional industrial growth has pushed China's resources and environment to nearly intolerable limits," he said.
The move by SEPA comes as pollution allegedly from chemical plants forced the shut off of tap water to 200,000 people in Jiangsu Province's Shuyang, the latest in a torrent of toxic emissions that have poisoned China's water, soil and air.
Pan told the China Daily an effective system is needed to hold government officials accountable for pollution.
"Suspending approval of new industrial projects is the toughest measure that SEPA can take, given its [limited] authority," Pan was quoted as saying.
The agency suspended industrial development in Chaohu, Bengbu, Baiyin, Banyannur, Weinan and Zhoukou cities, Hejin and Xiangfen counties in Shanxi.
Projects at industrial parks in Wuhu, Lanzhou, Handan, Puyang and Shenxian County were also suspended by the agency.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS