China Encourages Collaboration for Water Pollution Control

China's environmental regulation agency has encouraged citizens and businesses to take legal action if threatened by Three Gorges dam-area water pollution, according to the Xinhua news agency.

The State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA), in its newly amended water pollution control plan, has urged the public and private sectors to assume an active role in holding the government accountable for water pollution. "Citizens, corporations and other organizations shall turn to the court for compensation if being threatened by water pollution," reads a SEPA document. "Government officials in charge [of environmental management] will be denounced and punished if serious environmental damage happened due to administrative flaws or if they try to interfere with enforcement of environmental departments."

The SEPA report also warns that Three Gorges reservoir water quality is likely to worsen as water levels rise in the coming year. The group's revised plan calls for 460 new pollution control projects over the next three years; the efforts will require an investment of the equivalent of $3 billion.

The dam operator at Three Gorges Project Corp. has also announced private environmental remediation projects, including several wastewater treatment facilities and a special processing ground for handling toxic algae outbreaks.

Source: Probe Intl.