Having gained much ground in recent months, the country's environmentalists are trying hard to enforce tougher environmental laws. The National Environment Protection Agency (nepa) is planning to stop approvals for new industrial plants that are likely to release high levels of waste. "The government is shifting emphasis from the old practice of allowing pollution to occur first and then trying to exercise control, which has resulted in tremendous damage," said Liu Kunmin, director of nepa.
Till October last year, nepa had forced the closure of 42,000 small factories dealing with paper bleaching, dye manufacturing and leather processing, for causing water pollution. These factories were using primitive technology, excessive resources and discharging untreated waste. nepa plans to fund the new environmental policy by increasing the annual allocation for environmental protection from 0.8 to one per cent. The government will introduce a new law in March declaring serious environmental pollution a criminal offence.
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