Officials feel pinch in China’s sweeping pollution crackdown

Beijing:

Receiving messages from central environmental inspectors can be nerve-racking for lower-level officials in China. They need to either act quickly, or risk getting fired. Central environmental inspections were launched in July 2016, giving environmental officials more power to hold officials accountable for environmental problems.

Inspectors are dispatched by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and also include the Communist Party’s anti-graft watchdog and personnel department. Messages sent by inspectors to city officials are immediate calls to action.

Last week, officials in Huzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province wasted no time in responding to a lead provided by central inspectors. The inspectors came to Huzhou on August 11. One resident in a mountainous area reported to them that dead pigs were buried illegally when they should have been properly cremated. The lead was sent to the Huzhou government on August 30. The next day, Police, agricultural and environmental protection officials brought diggers to the area.

Within 10 days, six people, most of whom worked for a waste treatment company, were detained on suspicions of mishandling the dead pigs. Over 300 tonnes of carcasses were found. Communist Party discipline authorities of Huzhou are investigating officials for possible misdoings.

Central inspectors are seen as the latest weapon in China’s fight against soil, air and water pollution. Xinhua