A senior environmental official on Monday urged China's legislature to amend its 17-year-old environmental law in order to hold government officials accountable for pollution.

"The government's refusal or failure to fulfill environmental responsibilities has seriously set back China's environmental protection efforts," said Pan Yue, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

Local governments often escape punishment for actions that result in serious pollution because China's current protection law mainly targets the behaviors of citizens and organizations.  More importantly, its ability to restrict governmental actions is limited.

"With inadequate laws, the government's attempt at responsibility in environmental protection has become a mere scrap of paper," Pan said in an interview with Xinhua News Agency ahead of the "two sessions" - the annual meetings of China's top legislature and top political advisory body.

Chinese environmental officials and media have frequently lambasted local authorities for rampant environmental violations and called for serious punishments for negligent officials.  In response to this, and as an effort to counter local protectionism, the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee has announced that environmental protection will be an important index for assessing local officials' performance starting from 2007.

Pan said the environmental protection law should specify and emphasize the government's role in environmental protection and impose harsher punishments. He referred to the lead poisoning incident in Gansu Province and arsenide pollution in Hunan Province last year, saying those accidents showed that "most of the environmental violations involved governments."

The lead poisoning, discovered last April in Huixian County, was caused by a local factory and resulted in around 250 young children being hospitalized with hundreds more testing positive for high lead levels in their blood.

The other scare was the result of two factories in Yueyang of Hunan Province releasing waste water with a high concentration of arsenide into the Xinqiang River, affecting the water supply of 80,000 residents in the lower reaches.

Pan said the government's refusal to carry out its duty, interference in environmental law enforcement, and decisions that have resulted in a negative impact on the environment are the main reasons for China's serious environmental problems. He added that since 2004, NPC deputies and CPPCC members have submitted nearly 70 motions and proposals on environmental legislation, with almost half focusing on the revision of the current environmental protection law.

"The next 10 to 15 years is a crucial period for China's environmental protection cause. Governmental responsibility for the environment must be clarified in the law. This task should not be delayed," Pan said.

Investigations have shown that most of China's rivers and lakes are polluted, and almost half the ground water in urban areas is heavily polluted. Of 222 drinkable water resources in 113 major Chinese cities, only 72 percent reached national standards.

(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2007)