Police to work with Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP)

3 December 2013, China’s Ministry of Public Security and MEP vowed closer cooperation in dealing with environment-related crimes and punishing offenders.  The two ministries jointly released a document that outlines their roles and directive to jointly tackle major cases that have significant social influence. According to the MEP there were 18 major environmental pollution incidents in the third quarter of 2013, ten of which were related to water pollution.

Zou Shoumin, director of the MEP’s environmental supervision bureau says the two ministries will cooperate on three main types of cases: dumping of hazardous waste; discharging more than the allotted quota of pollutants; and a deterioration of the ecological environment.

See more here.

Price Reform due by 2015

3 December 2013,  Zhou Wangjun, deputy director at the price department of the National Development and Reform Commission, announced that his department is coming up with a new water pricing mechanism that may mean higher tariffs for industry water users.

See more here.

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Other initiatives by government ministries related to water also launched in November.

1. MEP: Investment guidelines for water treatment businesses operating in rural areas. See more here. (Chinese only)
2. MEP: Guidance for companies on Environmental Impact Assessment. See more here. (Chinese only)
3. MWR: “Changjiang Water Resources Commission Rural Water Management Plan”, for water conservation in the Yangtze River basin, which is suffering from very poor water safety and management. The basin supplies 430 million people. In the previous plan that was implemented during the eleventh Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) RMB 50.2 billion was invested, no budget for the new plan has been announced. The new plan aims to complete extensive feasibility studies and to set-up an information database by 2015 and to implement new management systems, such as irrigation pumping stations, by 2020. See more here. (Chinese only)

Seperately, the Ministry of Finance is considering air pollution and wastewater tax.