China's fight against water pollution has achieved an early victory, with 21 factories found to be polluting handing in proposals on how they plan to clean up their operations.

The State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), the country's top environmental watchdog, said in February that 11 factories found to be polluting heavily were told to cleanup their act or close their operations. Another 10 factories were listed by the SEPA as not passing the environmental impact assessment (EIA).

"The campaign aims at stopping potential sources of water pollution," said Pan Yue, vice-minister of SEPA.

"SEPA will take strict measures to supervise the blacklisted factories. Those which do not work out well will be punished according to the newly-issued draft regulations on environmental polluters."

The 11 polluters have submitted their cleanup plans to SEPA costing a total of 400 million yuan (US$49 million).

The 10 factories that failed the EIA have stopped their operations after SEPA's warning.

They have updated their facilities at a cost of 150 million yuan (US$18.5 million).

Since the Songhua River chemical spill last November in Northeast China, 73 water pollution accidents have occurred across the country, Pan said, adding that the task of environmental protection was pressing.

At a State Council meeting hosted by Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday, a five-year plan on pollution control and prevention for Songhua waters was passed, together with the regulations of compensation and relocation of the large-and-medium hydro power station constructions.

The pollution control and prevention on Songhua waters has been written into the country's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).

(China Daily 03/30/2006 page2)