Water pollution victims will find it much easier to win
compensation through class actions if a draft law amendment is
adopted by the nation's top legislature.
The second draft amendment to the Water Pollution Prevention and
Control Law, which is now being deliberated by the National
People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, contains an additional
stipulation that water pollution victims can seek civil
compensation directly from polluters.
If there are a large number of victims, the draft states, they
can file class actions, a lawsuit brought by one or more plaintiffs
on behalf of a large group bound by a common wrong.
This would be the first time that Chinese laws make such
explicit stipulations, according to Tang Weijian, a civil procedure
law professor with the Beijing-based Renming University of
China.
"It'll definitely encourage pollution victims to file more class
actions to protect their rights and interests," he said.
The Civil Procedure Law stipulates that if the victims number
more than 10, they can file class actions.
But the law fails to clarify in what kind of cases such actions
are allowed.
Such ambiguity, Tang said, often prompts local courts to refuse
to treat such cases as class actions because individual cases tend
to yield more income for courts.
The draft law also encourages governments, social organizations
and legal institutions to support victims in cases where
compensation is sought.
It says environmental monitoring institutions should offer
authentic figures if requested by affected parties.
Zhou Kunren, deputy director of the NPC Law Committee, said
these rules aim to better protect victims, especially those who
don't know how to protect themselves by legal means.
"They will also raise the violation cost for polluters," he told
the legislative session on Sunday.
He said civil compensation could cost polluters much more than
fines because of a large number of victims in pollution cases.
Compared to the first draft, the second draft also lifts the
restriction on the maximum amount of fines for enterprises blamed
for exceeding discharge standards.
The previous draft said the maximum fine for such violations
should not exceed 1 million yuan ($136,000), but the latest version
proposes to raise fines for such businesses to between two and five
times current pollutant violation penalties.
Yue Zhongming, a member of the NPC Standing Committee's
Legislative Affairs Commission, said that under the new provision,
big enterprises could pay fines much larger than 1 million
yuan.
"The amount of fines should be imposed according to the severity
of violations, and too little money cannot tackle the long-standing
problem of low violation cost," he said.
Water pollution is one of the biggest environmental concerns for
both government and the public.
A survey last year revealed the country's surface water
generally suffered from medium pollution.
One third of the 744 samples tested were graded "V", the worst
rating.
Official figures also show that the State Environmental
Protection Administration handled 161 emergency environmental
pollution incidents last year, 59 percent of which involved water
pollution.
(China Daily December 25, 2007)