The Environmental Protection Ministry revealed on May 8, 2013 how the government has handled 13 cases of pollution in the first three months of 2013. Something like this happened for the first time when the Ministry released information about a group of pollution incidents. An official from the Ministry, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that such information will be released on a quarterly basis in future.
The official said, “We are taking this measure to respond to the public’s concerns. We hope it will make public supervision more convenient andpush enterprises to rectify problems and improve their operations as quickly as possible”. Many high-profile pollution incidents have taken place in the past, which as a result created nationwide outrage.
The most recent scandal was in March 2013, which has created a public outcry when Deng Lianjun, who was the head of the local environmental protection department, responded to residents regarding the concerns over a polluted river in Cangxian county.
It was found later, that the levels of aniline in the river were 73 times higher than the national standard allows. The announcement that followed stated that Deng was removed from his post and the local environmental protection department was testing the water and soil samples in order to discover if it caused the pollution.
