Regional governments in Jiangsu have been tasked to enhance environmental protection as the provincial environmental protection inspection teams have advised the governments of Nanjing, Wuxi and Suzhou to re-look at the status quo of their environment.
The provincial environmental protection inspection teams carried out inspections on the environmental protection progress in the three cities between August 31 and September 30.
The inspector’s opinions were passed onto the government of the three cities on Wednesday.
Illegal projects that may harm the environment or sewage facilities were found in the 8 centralized drinking water sources in the section of the Yangtze River in Nanjing, according to the inspector’s opinion.
Illegal development and construction activities were found within some ecological red lines of the urban areas and Gaochun District of Nanjing without the approval of the provincial government.
Over exploitation of the land resources are rampant in Wuxi with 40% of the land in Jiangyin overdeveloped. The Taihu Lake falls short of the targets for water pollution prevention and control with 8 of the 13 rivers leading into the lake failing to meet the targets last year. Only 8% of the 1305 chemical plants in Wuxi are relocated to industrial parks. 336 textile plants released half of the major pollutants in the city.
Authorities in Suzhou failed to incorporate the environmental responsibility of the department concerned into the annual performance appraisal system. The city’s cut on coal consumption fulfilled no more than 26.7% of the annual targets. There are 4 chemical parks and 258 chemical storages, sewage treatment facilities and other key environmental risk sources along the Yangtze River, posing grave security risks to the environment. A large number of contaminated sites in the city have yet to be investigated and rectified.
The watchdog teams have demanded that the three cities study the situation and draft the rectification plans that should be reported to the provincial CPC committee and the provincial government within 30 days.
