China to ban water-contaminating industrial plants as it steps up 'war on pollution'
Polluting factories will be outlawed from the end of next year to turn back the tide of contamination in rivers and underground reserves
China will ban water-polluting paper mills, oil refineries, pesticide producers and other industrial plants by the end of next year, as it moves to tackle severe contamination of the water supply.
The long-awaited plan comes as the central government steps up its "war on pollution" after years of industrial development that have left one-third of the mainland's major river basins and 60 per cent of its underground water contaminated.
In a separate development, the State Council called on Wednesday for changes to industry to promote sustainable development and energy efficiency. The changes were expected to deliver about 2 trillion yuan (HK$2.5 trillion) in economic benefits for the environmental industry, news portal Thepaper.cn reported, citing sources from the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
Growing public discontent over environmental degradation has led to increasing scrutiny of industrial polluters. China National Petroleum Corp last month agreed to pay 100 million yuan (HK$126.7 million) in compensation after it was accused of leaking benzene into the water system in of Lanzhou.
But experts say much more needs to be done to protect scarce water resources.
"Water is the bottleneck to China's industrial development," said Alex Zhang, president of US-based McWong Environmental Technology.