The mining company got away by paying a small compensation to the villagers. And the government paid them 120 kilogram of rice per person per year and some money for not cultivating their contaminated fields. But most villagers, mostly left-behind aged farmers, continued to irrigate the polluted fields with the toxic water from the mine's waste pool.

When questioned by the media, Daxin county officials said this is a historical issue, and the people in charge of the environmental and public health departments have been replaced many times, indicating that no one is in a position to resolve the issue.

The central government has allocated special funds for the treatment of the waste pool but the county government is still planning how to go about the environmental regeneration project. The Guangxi autonomous regional government, on its part, has said that all the villagers would be shifted to a place which is free of heavy metal pollution. But experts say heavy metal poisoning has already done more than enough harm to the villagers.

The Sanhe case shows pollution victims still don't have legal channels for redressal of their grievances, and local governments generally side with the polluters.

Public pressure stirred by the media and higher authorities' strict directions are the only ways to make local governments act.

People in general feel the environment has degraded. And leaders at the just-concluded Central Economic Work Conference admitted that China's environmental capacity has almost reached its limit.

So, the central authorities have to create functional legal channels and arm the people with laws to defend their interests, make the environmental protection departments an autonomous and powerful system free of government interference, sharply raise the fines for polluters, and establish a permanent accountability system for government officials whose decisions can affect the environment. After all, protecting the environment is for the benefit of the people and the country both.

The author is a writer with China Daily. liyang@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 12/20/2014 page6)