Chongqing Municipality, in southwest China, has launched a campaign to crack down on factories that pollute the environment by discharging untreated industrial wastes.

Since this May, over 10,000 environmental inspectors have checked almost 7,000 factories. So far, over 600 companies have been penalized for causing pollution.

Twenty-four factories were shut down or ordered to deal with the pollution before resuming operations.

The Chongqing Fenghuang Plating Plant was fined 100,000 yuan (US$12,000) for discharging waste water and refusing to obey a government order to close down and fix the problem.

(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2002)