Over 6,000 officials held accountable for environmental damage

China has detained 6,471 officials for causing environmental damage in eight provincial-level regions of the country, officials said today.
Inspectors also detained 424 people and imposed 547.6 million yuan (USD 83.3 million) of fines following the fourth round of environmental inspections, the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a statement.
The inspected regions were Jilin, Zhejiang, Shandong, Hainan, Sichuan, Tibet, Qinghai and Xinjiang.
The ministry criticised a number of local governments for such problems as inadequate attention to environmental protection, poor treatment of air and water pollution, lack of environmental infrastructure and illegal land reclamation from the seas.
The eight regions should submit plans to address the problems to the State Council within 30 work days and make them public, the ministry said.

The inspections are part of China's campaign to fight pollution and environmental degradation as decades of growth have left the country with smog, polluted water and contaminated soil, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.