Green law 'must be enforced'

An independent team should be set up to ensure the law on environmental impact assessments is properly enforced, a senior legislator said yesterday.

Speaking at a legislative session in Beijing, Chen Zhili, vice-chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress, said lawmakers spent June and July field-testing the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment and found several problems with it.

The law, introduced in December 2002 to assess the potential environmental threat of all new construction projects, has been subject to "frequent violations", she said.