Some 20,000 tonnes of rubbish has piled up on a lakeshore in the famously beautiful Chinese city of Suzhou, threatening water supply contamination as typhoon season approaches.
Police detained 12 people and eight cargo ships on July 1 for shipping waste from nearby Shanghai and illegally dumping it on Xishan island, which sits in Lake Tai in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, according to the country’s official Xinhua news agency. The port used for dumping is connected to a drug rehabilitation centre on the island.
China’s government has prioritised environmental protection in its latest Five-Year Plan and stiffened penalties for polluters. But the latest incident highlights enforcement problems in a country already ravaged by 30 years of rapid industrialisation.