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11 polluting plants told to clean up their act
(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2006-02-08 06:10 But an unnamed official quoted by the People's Daily 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, for some time to come high-risk conditions for sudden
environmental incidents will continue," 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 100 tonnes of cancer-causing benzene into
the river. It led to the shutting of water taps in cities and towns in
Heilongjiang province, as well as a emergency measures in Russia, where the
river flows.
"The Songhua River incident was a major challenge and a big test," Pan said.
"We paid a dear price, but we also gained some new wisdom, new ways of thinking
and new motivation."
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.
Factories "only concern themselves with their immediate interests," ignoring
pollution hazards, the official said. 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.
Law suits have also been filed, mostly aimed at officials in Jilin province
where the chemical plant that released the benzene is located.
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 Workers Daily reported on Tuesday that 4.55 billion yuan ($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 310 sq-km 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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