Officials suspended after company polluted desert

Some of the top leaders of the environmental protection bureau in Wuwei, Gansu province, have been suspended for dereliction of duty after it was discovered that a company had been discharging sewage into the desert.

The manager and two people responsible from the company have been detained and the company was fined 3 million yuan ($483,000) and ordered to pay for the cleanup, Liang Heping, a Gansu province spokesman, said at a news conference on Saturday.

Ronghua Industry & Trade Co in Liangzhou district secretly discharged more than 83,000 metric tons of sewage into the neighboring Tengger Desert between May 28 and March 6, contaminating at least 18 hectares of the desert east of the city, the province announced at the news conference.