China needs daily pollution fines, official
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-10-08 09:21
China should slap daily fines on firms that pump untreated waste into lakes
and rivers, because current penalty limits make long-term pollution profitable,
an official was quoted on Saturday as saying.
Normally, fines for pollution are capped at 200,000 yuan ($25,300) regardless
of how long a factory ignores pollution regulations, China Daily said.
A layer of smog hangs over central Beijing, as
seen from a plane Wednesday, October 4, 2006. Severe pollution is
increasingly sparking unrest in rural areas, where the environmental has
all too often been sacrificed for profit -- worrying the government and
prompting repeated promises of cleanups.
[AP]
| China's per-capita water resources
are less than a third of the global average and falling, and its problems are
compounded by chronic pollution, waste and poor management. Around 300 million
people lack access to safe drinking water.
A daily charge would give companies an economic incentive to clean up their
waste, the paper quoted Mao Rubai, chairman of the Environmental and Resources
Protection Committee of China's parliament, as saying.
"The punishment should be calculated from the day that a factory is found
guilty of pollution discharge until the day its emissions meet environmental
protection requirements," Mao said.
His views were backed by a study by China's State Environmental Protection
Agency, which has suggested daily fines of 40,000 yuan up to 100,000 yuan, the
report added.
More than one quarter of the water in the Yangtze River, China's longest, is
so polluted that it cannot be treated to make it drinkable. Most of the Yellow
River -- the cradle of Chinese civilisation -- is not fit for drinking or
swimming either.
Beijing is currently looking into revising its Clean Water Act, which came
into force in 1984, the paper added.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
|
