Horrors will show when local govts try tricks instead of treating pollution

EARLIER THIS MONTH, a central environmental inspection group inspected Weifang city, Shandong province, and found the local government had failed in its duty to control pollution sources. Beijing News comments:

Weitan River is a local sightseeing river in Weifang, yet its water quality has long been classified as level 5, the worst level of all. According to the requirement of the central leadership, the local government should improve the water quality by controlling the pollution sources and preventing polluting industrial plants from discharging their waste water into the river.

However, instead of doing their job, the local government played a trick by spreading certain chemicals into the river this March so that the indexes of the water samples looked normal during the inspection in July. But the water quality deteriorated again very soon because the pollution still existed and the trick of the local government was revealed.