7-10-07, 10:19 am

BEIJING, July 6 -- The State Council's decision to revise the water pollution law is an overdue response to the water quality crisis surfacing nationwide.

In State Environmental Protection Administration Director Zhou Shengxian's words, an environmental emergency may break out anytime in most areas.

While announcing a temporary ban on new construction projects in a second batch of seriously polluted regions, SEPA Deputy Director Pan Yue admitted that was their last resort.

An important reason for SEPA's chronic sense of helplessness lies in the weakness of the law on water pollution. The 23-year-old legislation identifies all conceivable forms of violations and prescribes penalties. But it lacks methods of enforcement.

The fines and vague civil liabilities for most polluting actions are simply too slight in the face of potential financial gains.

The amended law should impose unbearable costs on polluters.

Another reason that the law has failed is that it gives local government too much responsibility. Lawmakers have evidently given more trust to local authorities than they deserve.

Polluters would not have grown so rampant without local officials' protection. Consigning the investigation entirely to local authorities is like giving violators a license to pollute.

The law should include a mechanism for timely judicial intervention.

There also has to be a way to liberate local environmental protection agencies from their current paralysis. They cannot supervise while being held hostage to local interests. The complete picture of the State Council's proposed revision is yet to be seen. But when it passes through the National People's Congress Standing Committee, we hope to see a legislative remedy that truly works.

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