Jiangsu conducts environmental inspections in 8 cities along Yangtze River

SHANGHAI, Apr 25 (SMM) – Jiangsu province will undertake a month-long, joint environmental inspection across eight cities along the Yangtze River from Tuesday April 24, the Jiangsu Provincial Environmental Protection Office said on Monday April 23.

To protect and preserve the ecology along the river, inspections will be conducted in Nanjin, Wuxi, Changzhou, Suzhou, Nantong, Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Taizhou, with closer scrutiny on industrial zones and enterprises that already face environmental issues.

Checks will be conducted from April 24 to May 13 and provisional supervision will be conducted from May 14-23. Inspectors from the city authorities will visit each city with reporters. Inspectors from the provincial authorities will follow up with checks, and focus on areas with severe environmental problems and supervise any sanctions and rectifications.

Despite intensified law enforcement efforts in recent years, environmental regulations continue to be violated. Two-thirds of Jiangsu’s heavy chemical capacities are located along the river and waste water that the eight cities discharge account for 74% of total waste water discharge across the province.

Since the first quarter of the year, the water quality of tributaries entering the Yangtze River has deteriorated. Of the tributaries that enter the river, grade three water, classified as safe for direct human contact, accounted 53.3% while grade five water, classified for use in industry and agriculture, accounted for 20%. The proportion of grade three water fell 16.5 percentage points while that of grade five water rose 10.7 percentage points on the year. China grades its water quality in six bands. Grades one, two and three are safe for direct human contact, while grades four and five can only be used in industry and agriculture. Anything below grade five is considered unusable.

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