Local officials have duty to protect environment for people's well-being

The CCTV headquarters is shrouded in heavy smog in the central business district in Beijing, China Dec 7, 2015.[Photo/Xinhua]

The passing years have seen the polluting of the natural environment worsening nationwide. Data show that two-thirds of urban residents breathe polluted air while 280 million residents drink unsafe water. The authorities need to curb pollution even if that means slower economic growth, says a comment on China Youth Daily:

According to our investigation, the most heavily polluted regions have heavy industries. For example, in northern China, Tangshan and Handan of Hebei province have many steel plants, while Baotou in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region features aluminum, steel, chemical and power plants; and Yangquan in Shanxi province has coal mines whose products are sold nationwide.

It has long been known how much damage these heavy industries do to the environment. Yet local governments seldom intervene because they rely on these heavily polluting plants as one of their main sources of income. Worse, some polluting plants are State-owned enterprises and the officials running them can easily become government officials; thus many local officials even protect these polluting plants.

As a result, not only has the environmental pollution worsened, but also many social conflicts have happened between residents and those operating polluting plants in or near their communities.

If that's not enough, environmental protection departments have seen increasingly more corruption cases in the recent years. From environmental assessments to air quality monitoring and the use of funds, officials grab money in every part of environmental protection. In several accidents that claimed people's lives in 2015, local environmental officials were reported to have cheated in their environmental assessments, yet none of them has been punished yet.

It is time for leading local officials to change their mindset. Economic growth is important, but people's health even lives are more important. People have the right to enjoy clean air and water, yet by protecting polluting plants these officials are depriving people of their legal rights.

President Xi Jinping once said that leading local officials need broader views. Yes, they need to know that economic growth can change and only a clean, good environment is permanent. Leading officials of local governments need to do better in protecting the environment because it is their duty to do so.