Provincial environmental supervisors make big effort to support central inspection team

It was an inspection carried out with a certain level of stress, both physically and psychologically, for Zhao Zhenwei, head of the Heilongjiang provincial Environmental Supervision Bureau.

On July 19, a central inspection team officially started its monthlong operation in Heilongjiang - "a surprise and swift inspection, and also the first thorough inspection of the environment from such a high-level team in the past 20 years," says Zhao, who started working there in 1993.

The inspection became the top priority in his work, as well as the province's.

As the head of the provincial supervision team for the environment, Zhao led teams to support the central inspectors. The major task was to collect materials, coordinate work and convey inspectors' demands down to lower departments and governments.

In the first 10 days, the inspectors widely reviewed policies and materials related to the environment, and searched for major meeting records on environmental protection from more than 60 districts and counties since 2013.

The environmental bureaus usually did not keep such records. And most governments didn't expect such thorough reviews, Zhao says.

"The counties and districts handed in the documents quickly, the next day after receiving notice," he says. "There were so many documents that they were delivered in bags and I had to carry them to the inspectors by cart."

"It's quite exhausting because we usually ran to give them the materials they needed," he says, adding that the coordination teams lived nearby the inspectors and usually worked late with them.

As coordinators, Zhao and his team also participated in other tasks, some of which were not done ahead of the central inspection. For example, they talked with 27 provincial leaders, "which reminded us that they are serious and will play it hard", he recalls.

In addition, Zhao felt the mental strain. He had "concerns that they would expose some problems we hadn't".

That didn't mean the province was hiding anything, he says. "We took it as a chance to check ourselves and to improve environmental protection," he says.

Plants in some polluting industries, such as quarries, would work as long as they had licenses, he adds, noting, "We can work more smoothly".

After a month of intense scrutiny, companies became more willing to protect the environment. Moreover, more policymakers have realized their responsibility for protecting the environment and for more cooperation with regular local inspections, he says.

For example, residents living near the Haotian corn processing plant in Suihua city have complained about the unpleasant odor for at least two years.

The plant, whose emissions already met government standards, made some efforts but did not completely control the smell. However, after the problem was identified by the central inspectors, the company invested more to finally solve the problem in September.

"Many long-standing problems that we have taken many measures to curb, yet failed, have been solved because of the inspectors," Zhao says.

"The monthlong inspection has deep influence for environmental protection in Heilongjiang, which will spur us to work more efficiently in the future. Our exhaustion is worth it."