Officials in 7 Chinese cities punished for solid waste pollution

Dozens of local government officials in seven Chinese cities have been punished after they failed to properly handle solid waste pollution problems, reports Chinanews.com.

These officials come from Linfen, Chizhou, Guangzhou, Dongguan, Yancheng, Chengdu and Wenling, according to a notice released by China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) on Sunday.

Treatment measures are being put into place to deal with the fly ash and carbide slag dumped by Sanwei Group in Xigou Village, Shanxi Province. [File Photo: Chinanew.com]

In Linfen, 50 officials from the environmental protection, water resources and land resources bureaus were held accountable for the serious polluting practices by the Shanxi Sanwei Group.

Earlier, five executives from the state-owned enterprise were removed from their posts after exposure by China Central Television, which found that its factory was dumping solid waste into a 30-meter-deep pit the size of two football fields some two kilometers from the facility.

The notice by the MEE added that illegal disposal of solid waste will lead to serious pollution of the environment and is very harmful to people's livelihood.

In response to the media exposure and public complaints, the MEE has launched a targeted crackdown on solid waste pollution. Special teams will be dispatched to inspect illegal discharge of solid waste.

Photo taken on Thursday, April 19, 2018, shows that Sanwei Group in Hongdong County, Shanxi Province, has stopped production. [Photo: Chinanews.com]

Meanwhile, local authorities were urged by the MEE to rectify the problems, punish those responsible for pollution and foster a long-term mechanism to address the issue.

Currently, the problems of illegal disposal of solid waste in Yancheng, Guangzhou and Dongguan are still being addressed, with local officials being questioned for further investigation. For the other problems in the remaining four cities, rectification measures have been in place with dozens of government officials being removed from their posts or questioned.