Chundu Is Urged to Redouble Its Effort in Environment Protection 　　In an interview with Chundu Group in Luoyang, Henan, the journalists found that pollution control in the enterprise is behind the state standard that a large quantity of industrial waste is discharged directly to Luohe. 　　Chundu Group is a famous ham production base in China. The total output value in 1998 reached as high as 3.324 billion yuan with a sales income of 2.236 billion yuan. But its pace of pollution control in the enterprise was slow. Last year, the Group set up a joint venture with a German corporation, which produces low-temperature food. According to relevant state environment protection laws and regulations, the pollution control facilities must be designed, constructed and operated simultaneously with the progress of a new project. The venture was put into production early this year, but the waste water discharge facilities are yet to pass acceptance check by local environment protection department. Another two affiliated food companies did not complete installation of waste water treatment facilities, with the result that waste water is emitted directly without any advance treatment. According to sources, the investment for a whole set of equipment is less than 10 million yuan. 　　Data of environment monitoring show that the Group produces 1.2 million tons of industrial waste water annually. In the first quarter of this year, the average index of COD discharge was 360 mg/liter, which far surpassed the state standard and has already caused serious pollution to the water body of the Yellow River. 　　In view of the situation, deputy governor Zhang Honghua of Henan Province pointed out that the more famous an enterprise is, the more it should intensify its environmental protection awareness. Large as well as small enterprises are equal before the law, both should abide by the environmental protection laws and regulations. He demanded relevant departments take some rapid steps to solve the stalled problem. 　　After hearing reports on matters related to the environment, Liu Dianli, mayor of Luoyang, called a meeting on environment protection that same day and personally urged Chundu Group to make a pollution control plan. 　　Li Baoyu, deputy general manager of Chundu Group, told the reporter: "the enterprise previously devoted most of its time and energy to economic development while neglected the importance of environment protection. Now we realize that environment protection work has direct link to the survival and development of an enterprise and its social image. No matter how large the difficulty is, we promise to allocate money to quicken the construction of pollution-control facilities. 　　According to sources, Chundu Group has already worked out a pollution-control plan and progress sheet of facility construction. The head of the enterprise pledges that the discharged water should be up to the state standard at the end of this year. To ensure that Chundu meet this requirement, Luoyang Environment Protection Bureau has sent a work team to the enterprise to direct its work. The Bureau also decided to cut production 50% of Chundu Share Corporation, LTD which still has not completed installation of waste water disposal facilities. The maximum of waste water emission by the Corporation is decided as 1500 tons each day. The local environment protection department expressed the idea that if the enterprise cannot reach the state discharge standard at due time, they will order it to suspend production. 　　 Economicnews 1999-08-02 Page5 Full Story in Chinese