China has cleared 51 tonnes of trash from a scenic southern region famed for a craggy peak featured in Hollywood blockbuster Avatar after videos went viral on social media showing caves used as a rubbish dump.
The caves in a national park in Hunan Province were stacked with stinking garbage up to seven or eight stories high, leading to a buildup of sewage, the videos on Chinese social media and public broadcaster China Central Television showed.
Zhangjiajie Park is a UNESCO heritage site that provided inspiration for the scenery in director James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi film.
Photo: REUTERS
As much as 51 tonnes of garbage was removed from the Datiankeng and Yangjiapo caves, some of it dating to between 2010 and 2016, administrative officials in Cili County said on social media on Sunday.
People had dumped waste there after the local government banned incineration, and before a new waste collection and treatment service was established, they added.
Four officials have been suspended while 12 farms were being investigated for illegal discharge of waste water, they said.
Authorities have set up a whistle-blower channel for reports of illegal waste dumping.
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