Official dereliction of duty has been blamed for a mass lead
poisoning incident in Gansu Province. A smelting plant was seriously
polluting the environment, but local officials covered this up for
about 10 years.
Pan Yue, deputy director of China's top environmental watchdog,
the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), slammed
the local government and environment bureau, and called for harsh
punishments.
In another serious pollution incident, two factories in Hunan Province were found last week to have
contaminated a local river with arsenic, jeopardizing the safety of
80,000 people.
"Although the plants were the cause of the pollution, the root
of the problem lies with the local governments," Pan said
yesterday.
"To serve their own interests, some local environment
departments even spearheaded the cover-ups," Pan added.
He described the cases as "typical examples of pollution
problems caused by a dereliction of duty of local governments and
environment bureaus."
"Officials must be held accountable," Pan warned, advocating
"harsh administrative punishments."
The factory at the center of the lead poisoning scandal in
Huixian County of Gansu had been in operation for 10 years, but
according to Pan, it never met national emissions standards.
In 2003 alone, 201 tons of noxious fumes were released into the
atmosphere by the plant, more than 800 times the national
acceptable standard, Pan said.
But the damage it was inflicting on local people only became
known by accident.
In April this year, a five-year-old boy named Zhou Hao was
electrocuted and had to undergo emergency treatment. Doctors were
forced to amputate his arm, and while administering a blood
transfusion they discovered abnormally high levels of lead in his
blood.
In total 368 people have been poisoned, 258 of them hospitalized
including 250 children, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The number could rise as more people are undergoing blood tests,
according to Xinhua.
"The illegal pollutant discharge lasted for more than 10 years.
The local government and environment bureau definitely will not
escape responsibility," Pan said.
The factory, Huixian Hongyu Nonferrous Smelting Co Ltd, has been
shut down.
As for the arsenic pollution in Hunan's Yueyang County, Pan said
this was definitely not an accident because the dumping had been
going on for a year.
"The local government and environment bureau should be held
responsible for turning a blind eye," he said.
(China Daily September 15, 2006)
