Environmental facilities to be open to public

Four categories of environmental facilities in all Chinese cities will be open to the public by the end of next year, the country's top environmental watchdog vowed on Monday.

Over 1,200 such facilities, including environmental monitoring stations and plants for the disposal of sewage and domestic and hazardous waste, have granted free access to the public since the move was initiated in May 2017, said Liu Youbin, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment's director-general of publicity and education.

People had made 630,000 visits to such facilities across the country this year, Liu told a national conference in Wuhan, Hubei's provincial capital, on Monday.

"Opening environmental facilities to the public cannot only guarantee the public's right to know environmental information and to participate in and supervise environmental protection work, but is also an effective measure to promote ecological and environmental education and enhance environmental awareness in different walks of society," he told the gathering of environmental officials involved in the work.

Giving the public access to the facilities could also help avoid the not-in-my-backyard mentality that posed a challenge for local governments when choosing sites for some facilities, he said.

Liu asked local environmental watchdogs to make arrangements for the work in the coming year and ensure that all cities in each provincial-level region open such environmental facilities to the public by the end of 2020.