Environmental costs of local economy boosts must be weighed in the balance

IN XITUO, a town in Southwest China's Chongqing municipality, there is a local wetlands nature reserve that used to cover more than 13 square kilometers. However, local authorities destroyed one-fourth of it building an industrial park. Beijing News comments:

The importance of wetlands can never be overestimated. They are called the "kidneys of the earth", as they help promote water circulation, balance the climate, and prevent some harmful, even toxic waste, from posing health threats to people and animals.

Reports say the wetlands in Xituo town are beside the Yangtze River and they could help protect the river's ecosystem. The officials who destroyed one-fourth of the wetlands have already done irreparable damage to the local ecosystem, even to that of the Yangtze River as a whole.

Local officials are often willing to destroy wetlands for commercial purposes, and the Xituo case is a typical example. It was in 2009 that the a nature reserve was established covering the local wetlands. But only a few months later, the local authorities announced their plan to build an industrial park. The plan was illegal but the local officials still implemented it.

According to reports, the local authorities not only destroyed about 4 sq kms of the wetlands, but also relocated 5,534 residents from three local villages, as well as investing heavily in the construction of the industrial park. For their "grand" plan they invested more than 2 billion yuan ($314 million) of taxpayers' money.

Yet the industrial park, which was built at such a high cost, has only attracted three enterprises in the past seven years, which can hardly propel the local economy. In other words, local officials not only destroyed the wetlands, but also wasted a huge amount of taxpayers' money.

A worse fact is that local officials have not any measure to correct their wrongdoings. Even after Xinhua Daily Telegraph published a report about Xituo, which attracted the whole nation's attention, the local officials who illegally drafted and implemented that industrial park plan have not been held accountable for their wrongdoing.

The Xituo case sounds the alarm that officials nationwide need to raise their awareness of the importance of wetlands.