More than 6,800 enterprises across the country will be shut down or ordered to suspend production after a nationwide investigation found they seriously pollute the environment.

Pan Yue, vice-minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), said yesterday the timetable for the production suspension or closure of the offending enterprises will be revealed soon.

Pan was speaking at a news conference that concluded a three-month national blitz against polluting enterprises.

It was carried out jointly by SEPA, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Supervision, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the Ministry of Justice and the State Administration for Safety Production Supervision.

Despite the conclusion of the blitz itself, the crackdown on polluting enterprises will continue permanently, Pan said.

Nearly 150,000 enterprises were inspected during the blitz and 12,000 were found to illegally discharge pollutants. Among the 12,000, more than 6,800 were earmarked for closure or production suspension.

Pan criticized a number of local governments for adopting a policy of "seeking development first and protecting the environment second."

Many outdated techniques which should have been abandoned are still used, he added.

The State Development and Reform Commission will take measures to terminate outdated techniques and promote clean production, said commission spokesman Zhou Changyi.

The commission will also encourage establishment of enterprises that adopt clean production techniques and co-operate with SEPA in making regulations on how to evaluate those techniques, Zhou said.

Meanwhile, Pan said the national blitz attained several positive results. For example, the quality of river water in the Wujin District of Changzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, was improved to level three from below level five after pollution from a printing and dyeing enterprise was put under control.

In China water quality is classified in five levels, with level one the cleanest and level five the most polluted.

(China Daily September 25, 2003)