in the village and the pits became the perfect dumping grounds for
industrial waste water.
Dereliction
Over the years, dealing with sewage pits and dry well dumping has
been a key task for Hebei’s provincial environmental protection agen-
cy. During an inspection of polluted ground water in northern China
in 2013, the Ministry of Environmental Protection found that 55
enterprises had illegally discharged industrial water into sewage pits,
ponds and irrigation channels. In the same year, Hebei’s environmen-
tal protection department punished 38 enterprises in the province
which had illicitly discharged polluted water.
After the media reports of the dumping pits in Dacheng County
broke, Wen’an County, 50 kilometres away, was busy covering up its
pollution. Zhangqingkou Village in the county had been discharging
industrial water into dried up wells since 2003 when more than 30
electroplating factories set up in the village.
In April 2017, Wen’an County’s environmental protection depart-
ment organised a discussion with all 30 electroplating factories on the
treatment of pollution. During the meeting, enterprises were asked
whether they would like to treat pollution themselves. If they refused,
the government would pay for it but shut down all those that failed to
meet environmental standards.
Song Fei (pseudonym) has been the manager of an electroplating
factory for nearly five years. He has 2,000 square metres of workshop
and the products are mainly sold in Tianjin, 90 kilometres away. He
said his enterprise discharged 10 tons of industrial water into the dry
wells each day on average and none of the enterprises in the village
had waste water treatment equipment.
“Most enterprises are manual workshops without a business li-
cence. We do not need to pay any taxes as long as the staff at the
environment department are satisfied,” he told our reporter. “After
an enterprise is established, the environmental department will ar-
rive and ask you to buy an environmental permit for 900,000 yuan
(US$130,000). If you hesitate, the government will regularly come
and pick faults and you have to pay more.”
Song said there are four enterprises in the village that have obtained
environmental permits, including his, and when a government agen-
cy planned to come and inspect them, the environmental department
would inform him in advance. Over the past five years, Song has had
numerous inspections and each time his business was found to be “up
to environmental standards.”
Nevertheless, after the media scrutiny of pollution in Dacheng
County and the involvement of the country’s top environmental
protection authority, the local government has become increasingly
serious in dealing with pollution. “The county head and deputy head
visited our village several times recently and the environmental pro-
tection department asked us to deal with pollution by ourselves first.
We were told if it is not up to standard this time, no enterprise will
survive,” he said.
“These acid pits are surrounded by farmland; crops are affected, and
groundwater hit most seriously, “ says Ma Jincai of Nanzhaofu Village,
Dacheng County, Langfang City, Hebei Province, April 20, 2017Photo by cfp