Toxic waste: watchdog suspected

BEIJING - Disciplinary authorities are investigating an environmental watchdog suspected of complicity in the illegal dumping of carcinogenic industrial wastes in Yunnan province, which threatens the water sources for tens of millions of people.

Realizing they would not earn any money by transporting chromium-contaminated waste to Guizhou as they were supposed to, two truck drivers dumped around 5,000 tons of the contaminated waste in the hills of Qilin district in Qujing near the Chachong Reservoir from April to June.

At least 3,000 people live near dump sites and runoff from the reservoir feeds into the Pearl River, one of China's longest waterways.