Watchdog urges public to help fight pollution

Pan Yue, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (Sepa), urged the public to get more involved in finding a solution to China's environmental woes, the South China Morning Post reported. "In the face of the complicated and arduous environmental protection work, it is impossible to rely on environmental authorities alone," Pan said. "The only way to break the deadlock is to enlist the power of the public." A regulation aimed at giving the public a greater say in the approval process for industrial projects was introduced in March and 43 projects worth US$20 billion have been rejected since then due to a lack of public participation, Pan said. Sepa has launched a series of regulatory actions in the past two years, stopping dozens of industrial projects for failure to observe the environmental impact assessment law.