Water supplies for at least 26,000 people were cut off in southwest China after a scenic lake popular with holidaymakers was contaminated with arsenic and other pollutants, state media reported yesterday.
The vice mayor and several officials have been sacked over the contamination of Yunnan Province’s Yangzonghai Lake, the China News Service said.
At least 18 officials have been removed from their posts or relieved of their duties pending investigation, including provincial, city and county-level Chinese Communist Party cadres, it said. Eight were reportedly demoted.
Xinhua news agency said it would take about three years and cost hundreds of millions of US dollars to clean up the lake, were high levels of poisonous arsenic were found in June.
At least 26,000 people living around the lake had their water cut off in July because of the problem, it said.
Most of the residents were soon given access to water from another source, but about 200 were still dependent on bottled water, Xinhua reported.
Three executives of the Jinye Industry and Trade Co, a chemical firm suspected of being the principal polluter, have also been arrested and are facing criminal charges, the report said.
The local government’s blind pursuit of economic growth and tax revenues led to the lax pollution controls around the lake, despite orders from Beijing to place greater priority on the environment, Xinhua said.
Last year, the chemical company paid 11 million yuan (US$1.6 million) in taxes, it said.
Locals had complained about the pollution from the factory for years, but officials refused to take action, China News Service said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia