Forty-seven fishermen in Jiaxing in East China's Zhejiang Province were awarded more than 7.5 million yuan (US$903,600) compensation on Monday, after successfully suing 20 firms responsible for polluting the waters of the area and devastating the fishing industry.
Jiaxing, an area criss-crossed by rivers and lakes, has been plagued by bad-quality water since the early 1990s. And for years, its once limpid rivers, lakes and ponds have been turned into little more than stinking sewage ditches.
All this, claimed the fishermen, was caused by a number of enterprises in Shengze, a county in East China's Jiangsu Province, adjacent to Jiaxing. Those companies were accused of emptying large amounts of industrial sewage over the last 10 years or so into the rivers which run through the neighboring provinces.
The resulting putrefied condition of rivers and lakes in the area has severely damaged the local fishing industry. With not only their environment threatened but also their livelihoods, the fishermen began to fight back. And for the last decade the cross-province water-pollution issue has shuttled back and forth between Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
In 1996, following the intervention of the then National Environmental Protection Agency, the Jiangsu side admitted responsibility for pollution and agreed to pay some 2 million yuan (US$240,960) in damages to the Zhejiang fishermen.
But that, however, was not the end of the story. In spite of that payout, other companies in Shengze continued to spew untreated waste into the waterways.
Quantities of sewage, which far exceeded the State's permissible water and fishing water quality levels, were released into the area's rivers and lakes.
As more and more types of marine life, including clams and oysters, faced extinction due to the low oxygen levels in the polluted waters, the fishing industry's future looked ever more bleak.
By the end of October 2001, the 47 fishermen who took legal action claimed to have lost more than 7.89 million yuan (US$950,602) between them.
On December 11, 2001, Wu Hongxiang, Ji Xiangyuan and 45 others sued a silk printing and dye mill and 19 other firms in Shengze.
Just over a year after their action began, their claim was upheld by Jiaxing Intermediate People's Court on Monday.
Following their success, fishermen and other residents in the area hope that the victory will serve as a warning to other firms and ensure companies do more to protect and safeguard the environment in the future.
(China Daily December 18, 2002)
