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China Launches Nationwide Environmental Safety Inspection

Posted on: Thursday, 8 December 2005, 12:00 CST

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Beijing, 8 December: China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) said Thursday [8 December] it was launching a nationwide environmental safety inspection targeting big or medium sized enterprises along rivers.

"Big or medium sized enterprises located along major rivers or their tributaries, especially the chemical plants at the upper reaches of drinking water sources, are major inspection spots," said an emergency circular issued by SEPA, requiring that the inspection teams sent to ten provinces should wrap up their work by the end of next January.

The circular came after the toxic benzene spill into Songhua River caused by a chemical plant explosion in north China's Jilin Province.

SEPA's director Xie Zhenghua resigned last Friday, becoming the highest-ranking official removed from office for an environmental disaster.

On Monday, SEPA reported four recent environmental accidents in a bulletin shortly after their occurrences. The four incidents, all chemically contaminating the surroundings, have been dealt with immediately and no human deaths have been reported.

Thursday's order asked local governments to frame an environmental emergency response plan by the end of this year to shut down plants with excessive drainage and factories failing to improve environmental safety conditions.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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