AgroPages-China’s Jiangsu Province to close 3 chemical parks in Guanhe river outlet area if environmental compliance not reached by 2020-Agricultural news

This March, media’s reports about pollution in 3 chemical industrial parks in the Guanhe river outlet area in China had attracted broad attention from the public. According to a provincial investigation report, many large-scale industries are currently located in Jiangsu Province, which has caused considerable emissions and discharges. The Province’s heavy chemical industrial structure, coal-based energy structure and excessive ecology costs have become a serious bottleneck in the planned sustainable development.

To this end, Jiangsu Province has proposed implementation of the “4 correctional plans against chemical productions”, which include shutdowns, relocations, upgrading and restructuring of a number of chemical works. The plans request that the present rate of chemical works within chemical parks should reach 50%, and those chemical parks not complaint with the regulation will be closed down. According to the plans, an inspection will be completed by the end of the year to ascertain the non-compliant chemical works, which will be put under correction to ensure compliance by the end of 2019.

There have been long existing insufficiencies with the construction of environmental facilities and capacity building in Jiangsu Province, which are reflected in four areas: 1) insufficient sewer networks connecting domestic sewage plants; 2) insufficient urban and rural domestic solid waste treatment capacities; 3) insufficient hazardous waste treatment capacities; 4) insufficient environmental monitoring capacities.