Chinese Officials Punished for Pollution

Tai Lake turned green last month during an algae bloom

China has fired or otherwise punished five officials for failing to prevent pollution blamed in a massive algae bloom in one of the country's biggest lakes, a newspaper reported Monday.

Meanwhile, the central government has ordered all towns around the lake to establish sewage treatment plants and issued new emissions standards for area chemical factories, state media reported.

The officials' punishments come even as China is preparing to try salesman-turned-environmentalist Wu Lihong, who had campaigned for years to stop the pollution in Lake Tai. Detained in April, Wu faces extortion charges that friends and family say were concocted to punish him for exposing local government inaction.

The officials punished included the head of Wu's native Zhoutie township and his deputy, the Oriental Morning Post said. It said the five were guilty of dereliction of duty and weak oversight of local industries.

The announcement came less than two weeks after the sudden outbreak of blue-green algae smothered the lake, forcing residents of the lakeside city of Wuxi to drink and bathe with bottled water.

Local officials drew criticism from state media and government experts for trying to blame the bloom on natural conditions, and for ignoring the pollution and its effects.

The Oriental Morning Post said penalties ranged from a warning to loss of position, but did not say what official received what penalty. Others punished included the deputy chief of the environmental protection bureau in Yixing, a city on the lake's western shore, and two environmental officials in Zhoutie township.

While famed for centuries for its beauty, the lake was also notoriously polluted from industries in the fast-developing region, 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Shanghai.

Small, scattered chemical plants in Yixing have become particularly notorious polluters.

A plan announced Monday requires the 20,000 chemical plants in the Lake Tai valley to meet more stringent standards for sulfur dioxide emissions and chemical oxygen demand, a water pollution index, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Those that fail to meet the new standards by a June 2008 deadline risk suspension or closure.

Also, towns around Lake Tai must set up sewage treatment plants and can no longer discharge untreated sewage into the lake and area rivers, Xinhua reported. Existing plants must install nitrogen and phosphorus removal facilities before the deadline.

The algae bloom lasted six days until it was flushed out by rain and water from the nearby Yangtze River.

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