Polluting firms operating illegally in environmental protection zones

Nearly half of the 89 environmental protection zones in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have companies operating illegally, with a total of 663 firms involved, the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) said on Saturday.

An MEP-led inspection team issued a report on Inner Mongolia, which reveals that 41 of its 89 national- and regional-level protection zones have companies operating illegally, stating that environmental regulations have failed to be enforced on most of the mine mountains.

The inspection team pointed out that although Inner Mongolia has witnessed great improvements in environmental protection since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, companies illegally occupying grassland, firms using polluting outdated equipment, ecosystem vulnerability and environmental degradation still pose a threat.

In addition, the team noted that some local governments rarely conduct research on environmental protection, while some others have inadequate environmental risk control measures.

Following the inspection team's recommendations, the Inner Mongolia government dealt with 1,637 pollution tip-offs, shut down 362 illegal companies, and detained 57 people by the time the report was made public.

Several companies in Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Ningxia provinces, which border the desert, were found to have illegally dumped industrial waste in the desert since 2007, Xinhua reported in March.

Some local governments that give priority to the GDP will shut down the heavily polluting factories or companies before the inspection team arrives, and these enterprises will reopen after the team leaves, an environmentalist surnamed Xiang from a Beijing-based NGO told the Global Times.

During this inspection, the people reported cases concerning industrial pollution, sand mining and quarrying that destroyed grassland and farm pollution, Hao Qingwen, deputy head of the Inner Mongolia Environmental Protection Department, was quoted by news site cnr.cn as saying.

According to the inspection team, the regional government is required to submit their plan for improvements to the State Council and release it to the public within 30 days from Saturday.

The inspection team started their work on July 19 in eight provinces and regions, including Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang Province.