Illegal eateries must be closed to protect lake

THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES in Dali, Southwest China's Yunnan province, should be aware that any leniency they show the illegal restaurants and guesthouses around Erhai Lake will lead to various forms of waste being discharged into the nation's seventh largest freshwater lake. Beijing Youth Daily comments:

The Dali government recently issued a notice to all the eateries and guesthouses in the core area of the Erhai Lake Nature Reserve that they should suspend operations before April 10 for environmental protection inspections.

Although many people applauded the government's notice as being humane, because it extended the deadline beyond the national holiday for Tomb Sweeping Day this year, a golden period for the tourism industry, it is in fact a notice that shows no consideration to the lake, whose environment and ecology are already on the brink of collapse.