The Age
January 7, 2002

SEPA says it has received 45 accident reports, mostly water pollution, since last November when an explosion in a chemical plant on the Songhua River killed five people.

(Excerpt)

Beijing: China’s top environmental watchdog is demanding immediate reporting of pollution accidents to avoid a repeat of the disastrous toxic spill on the Songhua River. The State Environmental Protection Administration said it had received 45 accident reports, mostly water pollution, since last November when an explosion in a chemical plant on the Songhua killed five people. … A statement on the environment agency’s website highlighted six of the worst accidents of the 45 reported to February 1. All involved rivers. Yu Xiao Gang, director of the environmental group Green Water Shed, based in Kunming in the south-western province of Yunnan, said yesterday that the watchdog’s tougher line was heartening as the environmental toll from uncontrolled development threatened to destroy social order.