Environmental law enforcement has hit obstacles in parts of China and certain local government officials have been half-hearted in dealing with pollution, said a Chinese environmental official on Tuesday.

Some large state-owned companies and listed companies ignored environmental rules and local governments disregarded initiatives to rectify their performance, said Lu Xinyuan, chief of the environmental supervision bureau of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

Lu cited a case in Liupanshui city, in southwest China's Guizhou Province, where a vice mayor was held responsible for making false environmental reports to inspectors from State Council departments.

On September 22, the vice mayor told the inspection team "there are no coal chemical companies in the city", when more than 30 coke chemical or other chemical companies were operating in Liupanshui.

Lu said the vice mayor broke the Law on Civil Servants which forbids public servants from making false reports.

Environmental problems were also striking industrial parks. Most of the 20 industrial parks inspected had failed to carry out environmental assessments before construction.

Central departments would send more inspectors this month to investigate local environmental protection, but Lu declined to identify the areas to be investigated.

Major industrial pollutants climbed in the first nine months compared with the same period last year, driven by fast economic growth and high emissions of sulfur dioxide, figures from the SEPA showed.

Twelve billion tons of wastewater was discharged in the first nine months, up 2.4 percent from the same period last year, while sulfur dioxide emissions were up 4.2 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency November 22, 2006)