China’s central government slams Shanghai over failing green effort
City has slacked off in efforts to clean up pollution, particularly in its water supply, ministry says
Shanghai has slacked off in its efforts to improve the environment, levying fines too small to deter polluters, hundreds of whom have flouted closure orders, the central government said on Wednesday.
Standards had fallen and some of Shanghai’s environmental work had grown “slack”, an inspection team found after a month-long investigation late last year, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said on its website.
The environmental protection work that remained undone could hold back Shanghai’s development, the ministry said.
“Shanghai’s environmental protection work has had obvious successes but environmental quality remains a prominent weak point affecting the city’s overall development,” it said.
From 259 water samples tested, 88 were found unfit even for farm or industrial use, falling below the ministry’s “grade V” categorisation, it said, adding that overall water quality in some districts had worsened conspicuously since 2013.