The Australian
September 20, 2006

The Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, run by author Ma Jun, has launched a ‘name and shame’ website that lists more than 2,500 companies it accuses of polluting the country’s fragile water system.

China and international aid donors are investing heavily in new treatment plants to clean up the country’s polluted rivers and lakes – but some of the costly new projects have never started working. This is one of the scandals exposed in Beijing yesterday by the director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, Ma Jun. He was speaking after the institute, one of a group of non-government organisations – mostly focused on environmental issues – permitted to operate in China, launched a “name and shame” website that lists more than 2500 companies it accuses of polluting the country’s fragile water system. … He said solving China’s huge water problem “is not a matter of technology, nor primarily a matter of money, but one of reforming the environmental governance structure”. The anti-pollution agencies lack resources, Mr Ma says. The State Environmental Protection Administration has a headquarters staff of just 200