China has seen over 130 water pollution accidents across the country since mid-November last year, averaging one in every two or three days, a senior official with the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) said on Sunday.

 

Pan Yue, deputy director of the SEPA said at the ongoing China Business Summit 2006 that since the pollution of the Songhua River in November 2005.

 

The frequent occurrence of pollution accidents resulted from irrational distribution of industrial enterprises, Pan said.

 

A blast in a chemical plant of PetroChina Company Limited in northeastern Jilin Province happening on Nov.13 last year leaked toxic benzene into the Songhua River, major water sources of Heilongjiang, affecting water use of local people.

 

According to Pan, China has over 20,000 chemical factors distributed along major rivers, including 10,000 along the Yangtze River and 4,000 along the Yellow River.

 

China is drawing up an environmental assessment system to make rational arrangement of factories along rivers, he said.

 

Pan emphasized that the SEPA will make public the information on pollution accidents as soon as the they happen and send investigation teams to the venue of accidents to handle the aftermath.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 11, 2006)