Officials ‘tampered with smog readings’
Print Edition
CHINA has punished officials in the provinces of Jiangxi and Henan for tampering with pollution monitoring equipment in order to reduce smog readings, according to the environment ministry.
China has been waging a “war on pollution” since 2014 in a bid to reverse the environmental damage done by more than three decades of economic growth.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection said on Sunday that officials in the cities of Xinyu in Jiangxi and Xinyang in Henan, sought to reduce emissions readings by spraying water on their air quality sensors.
Both cities are major producers of polluting and energy-intensive nonferrous metals such as aluminum and copper.
The two local governments said the officials responsible were dismissed or subjected to “administrative” punishments.
“Regardless of whether they deny deliberately tampering and whether or not it has an obvious impact on emissions data, spraying water on air quality monitoring sampling points disrupts the normal operations of air quality monitoring,” said the ministry, which has tried to establish a real-time nationwide emissions monitoring system to help fight against pollution and ensure its rules are being enforced throughout the country.
But it has also been forced to crack down on the falsification of data, with some local officials accused of trying to evade responsibility by misusing or disabling monitoring equipment.
Some firms have also sought to evade monitoring by operating only at night.
The ministry has sought to reduce “administrative interference” in its emissions data by bringing all its 1,436 monitoring stations under central government control and denying local authorities access to the equipment.
Some companies in Henan were also castigated last March for failing to maintain the integrity of air quality data. The ministry accused them of providing fraudulent emissions figures.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
