Local officials have duty to protect environment for people's well-being

THE PASSING YEARS have seen the polluting of the natural environment worsening nationwide. Data show that two-thirds of urban residents breathe polluted air while 280 million residents drink unsafe water. The authorities need to curb pollution even if that means slower economic growth, says a comment on China Youth Daily:

According to our investigation, the most heavily polluted regions have heavy industries. For example, in northern China, Tangshan and Handan of Hebei province have many steel plants, while Baotou in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region features aluminum, steel, chemical and power plants; and Yangquan in Shanxi province has coal mines whose products are sold nationwide.

It has long been known how much damage these heavy industries do to the environment. Yet local governments seldom intervene because they rely on these heavily polluting plants as one of their main sources of income. Worse, some polluting plants are State-owned enterprises and the officials running them can easily become government officials; thus many local officials even protect these polluting plants.