Big polluters face strict monitoring

Confronted with a growing volume of industrial waste and deteriorating water and air quality, the top environment watchdog is setting up an extensive automated network to conduct real-time monitoring of the countries' most notorious polluters.

Zhou Shengxian, minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), announced that the country is launching an automated system that by the end of next year would closely monitor key polluters, who account for 65 percent of the country's industrial waste.

Environment agencies and activists have complained that after being inspected by SEPA officials, many industrial plants simply turn off their expensive sewage disposal facilities and resume dumping waste directly into rivers.