South China’s Guangxi region is to close over 100 of its heavy-metal processing plants, in an effort to lessen pollution following a major river contamination early this year.
Guangxi is part of a broader region clustered with heavy-metal processing plants as the belt, which encompasses also the provinces of Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan and Hubei, is endowed with non-ferrous metal resources.
But the cadmium contamination of Longjiang River in Guangxi’s Hechi city in January has made the local government decide on a drastic clean-up of the industry in its dominion.
After inspecting the pollution control works of 154 heavy-metal processing plants following the incident, 123 were ordered to close, Liang Bin, Guangxi’s top environmental official, said this week.
The other 31 were to take corrective measures before resuming production, he added.
Heavy-metal pollution control is a challenge for Guangxi because of its limited budget and lagging production technologies, the official pointed out.
But it has earmarked 25 million yuan (US$3.93 million) this year for improvements in pollution control and has applied to the central government for additional help of up to 4.5 billion yuan.
“We’ll further tighten supervision of the industry, upgrade requirements for new companies involved in heavy metal, and take steps to phase out backward productions,” said Liang.
Large numbers of fish were killed in the Longjiang pollution, sparking outrage in Liuzhou city when its water supply was threatened. Two chemical companies were later found to have illegally discharged carcinogenic cadmium into the river, and 10 of their managers were arrested.
