9 accused of dumping toxic waste into Yangtze River

Nine people stood trial in Changshu People's Court in Jiangsu province on Monday and Tuesday for dumping more than 40,000 metric tons of trash into the Yangtze River, causing serious water pollution and major economic losses.

In December 2016, large amounts of trash, some of it toxic, were found floating in the Taicang section of the river. The trash, which contained medical waste, diapers and household waste, stretched more than 10 kilometers and severely endangered the safety of drinking water drawn from the Yangtze estuary.

Because the dumping sites were upstream from a drinking water reserve, the government of Taicang had to shut down two water intake sites for more than two days.