CRI听力:NPO Launches Investigation in Longjiang River Contamination

The serious cadmium contamination in the Longjiang River in South China's Zhuang Autonomous Region has killed more than 40,000 kilograms of fish and has affected the livelihood of more than 230 households.

As pollution clean-up work carries on, All-China Environment Federation, an environmental NPO, has launched an investigation in the polluted area preparing for environmental public interest litigation. Ma Yong is the chief of legal department of the federation.

"Our investigation is in the preliminary stage. We're focusing on the losses of the Luoshan village people located on bank of Longjiang River. Since the villagers' income solely relies on fishing, the contamination has caused them huge losses worth at least 4 million yuan. And we're providing all kinds of legal aid to them as well."

Ma Yong says instead of starting public interest litigation right away, All-China Environment Federation is now pushing the local government and environmental organizations to start an official litigation against responsible industries. The reason to put the litigation on hold is that within China's civil litigation system, the federation is not justified to start one yet.

"In China, when public interest is harmed, only those who have a stake in the issue can start such litigation. What we can do first in this case is sending a lawyer's letter to the local government urging them to sue the responsible industries. If they do not take action in two months, then we can take our own at the local environmental court. However, the number of these courts is limited throughout China, and our actions have been greatly restricted."

Ma Yong says relevant amendments to the civil litigation system need to be carried out urgently since public interest litigation is a crucial part of public interest protection. Currently, a draft amendment is under discussion in China's top legislative body. It suggests giving green light to related government departments as well as social organizations to file lawsuit on behalf of the public.

He says the Longjiang River contamination has attracted the country's attention because it has caused severe damage to the local environment, and most importantly to local people's personal lives. There are other rivers being polluted in China, but no one cares as long as they don't find material or physical losses, no action will be taken.

"In 2010, we found a river in Guiyang heavily polluted by a local paper factory. Few people would bother to do anything about it, and those who filed complaints to the government were just ignored. We urged the government but it didn't work, so we started environmental public interest litigation at the local environmental court and made the factory shut down. And there are must be polluted rivers and lands like that existing elsewhere in China. They are a hidden danger for local people."

Ma Yong calls for the civil litigation system to be amended and says that environmental public interest litigation should become a deterrent force against irresponsible industries and a true guardian of public interest.

In the Longjiang River case, through cooperation with the local government, the All-China Environment Federation hopes to set up a fund out of compensation from responsible industries. Ma Yong says the fund will be used for local people's medical treatment and to deal with secondary pollution.

For CRI, I'm Wang Wei.