Officials punished for polluting Chuzhou River

Criminal proceedings began on Wednesday over a recent river pollution incident in Chuzhou, a city in eastern China’s Anhui province, provincial authorities said.

A recent fire at a chemical warehouse in Quanjiao county caused contaminated water to leak into the nearby Chuhe River, according to a statement released by a joint investigation team on Wednesday morning.

According to a media report, the pollution led to a mass death of fish in this section of the river and in the lower reaches in the neighboring province of Jiangsu.

The team’s statement said the county party secretary had been removed from office and that other persons responsible in this connection were still under investigation.

According to Anhui Daily, the investigation team was set up by the provincial government and the provincial disciplinary inspection and supervision authorities.

Dou Ping, then director of the county’s ecology and environment bureau, told China Central Television that the bureau did not check the toxicity of the leaked wastewater “because it was not necessary,” according to a media report on Monday.

Yang Jun, an official at the county water resources bureau, said he should not worry too much about the incident as he will retire in two months.

Videos of Dou and Yang’s comments went viral on Tuesday.

Dou’s resume was removed from the office’s official website on Wednesday.