China says less covering up accidents; maybe more cleaning up

China has asked its regional officials to stop covering up pollution accidents. That sounds like a step in the right direction. However, I'm not sure whether we should feel better or worse about the candid admission that accidents will continue for "some time to come."

But the official also warned that China will find it near impossible to avoid serious accidents even after a chemical spill in November galvanized national concern about the ecological damage that has accompanied China's industrial boom.

"Due to the geographic distribution of environmental threats and structural environmental risks, for some time to come high-risk conditions for sudden environmental incidents will continue," the official said.

...

SEPA received official reports of 45 other pollution accidents in the two and a half months after the Songhua spill, and nine were caused by factories illegally expelling pollutants, the official told the People's Daily.

"The dramatic rise in environmental incidents is far from random," the official said.

Factories "only concern themselves with their immediate interests," ignoring pollution hazards, the official said. He cited a smelter in southern China's Guangdong province that dumped poisonous chemicals into the Beijiang River in mid-December.

-reuters