Six days after the inspectors left Shantou, Zheng Jiange, the city's mayor, arrived in the Lianjiang Basin with a rectification team, as Zhai suggested. Another 14 teams soon followed, headed by one of the city's leading officials, Ma Wentian, its Party chief who had just been transferred to the post, according to a report in Legal Daily.

The newspaper, which is based in Beijing, said each team was stationed alongside one of the Lianjiang's 15 most-polluted tributaries, but it did not disclose how long the teams stayed by the river.

In July 2018, Li Xi, the Guangdong Party chief, conducted an investigation tour of the Lianjiang, after which former Guangdong governor Ma Xingrui visited the river every six months to monitor rectification progress.

According to a guideline issued by the central authorities on the rectification work, top officials from provincial-level Party committees and governments should shoulder primary responsibility for dealing with violations found by the inspectors.

Party committees and governments at this level should also work out a mechanism for the rectification work, coordinate efforts among government bodies, and monitor progress, according to the guideline.

Zheng, the mayor, said central environmental inspections helped reverse the lack of progress with environmental management in the Lianjiang Basin. Different departments were made aware of their duties, and effective measures were introduced to resolutely promote governance.

Soon after Zheng arrived in the Lianjiang Basin with his team, some buildings that had encroached onto the river in a village were demolished. Occupying a total area of 13,000 square meters, the buildings, which were built three decades ago, were torn down just in five days, according to the local authorities.

The land on which the buildings stood was used to build a sewage pipe network.