The two recent incidents that had been covered up in Shanxi province, one concerning water contamination and the other an explosion in a tunnel, should remind policymakers of the urgency to rethink the country's accident reporting mechanism.

An accident in a coal chemical plant led to chemicals leaking into the river in Changzhi, Shanxi province, which necessitated cutting off the water supply downstream, including some areas in neighboring Henan and Hebei provinces.

The leak was discovered on Dec 31, but it was only reported to the provincial government five days later.

The tunnel blast, which killed eight people, was also covered up for five days before it was made public on the Internet by a local resident.

Such cover-ups are intolerable.

If these accidents had been reported immediately, the local authorities would have been able to take timely measures to reduce the harm and possibly save some lives. In the case of the water contamination, the leaked aniline, which is potentially lethal, could have been contained and the surrounding regions would have time to make preparations.

Apart from threatening people's lives, such cover-ups deprive the public of their right to know and cause public panic.

It is reported that bottled water sold out in many supermarkets in Handan, Hebei province, due to panic-buying.

In 2005, when the government in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, failed to let the public know the real cause for the sudden cutting off of the water supply - an explosion in a chemical plant that caused a leak of chemicals into the river - the public thought a serious earthquake was coming.

The local government in Shanxi has failed to draw the lessons from the incident in 2005.

The existing laws and regulations make it clear such accidents should be reported to the higher-level government within an hour.

The problem is that such laws are often ignored. Obviously, the punishments meted out so far have lost their effectiveness as deterrents. The punishments have involved demotion or fines, but such disciplinary measures will not curb such cover-ups.

According to the amended Criminal Law, cover-ups can lead to a fixed-term imprisonment of up to seven years. It is high time harsher penalties were adopted. It is the right cure to the cancer of accident cover-ups.

(China Daily 01/08/2013 page8)