Chinanews.com, July 28, spokesperson of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment Liu Youbin said on the 28th that in the first half of 2020, there were 107 environmental emergencies nationwide, a decrease of 22.5% compared with the same period in 2019. Among them, 50 were caused by production safety accidents, 42 were caused by transportation accidents, 4 were caused by illegal sewage discharge, 4 were caused by natural disasters, and 7 were caused by other reasons.
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment held a regular press conference in July on the 28th. At the meeting, Liu Youbin introduced the environmental emergencies nationwide in the first half of this year. He pointed out that from the perspective of the cause of the incident, production safety accidents and transportation accidents are still the main causes of secondary environmental emergencies, and the total of the two exceeds 85%. With the joint efforts of eco-environmental departments at all levels, a number of environmental emergencies including the leakage of the tailing pond of Luming Mining Co., Ltd. have been properly handled, and environmental safety has been effectively guaranteed.
Liu Youbin said that the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has always adhered to and implemented effective practices such as "preparing for anything and nothing, and treating big and small things as big things" and "five first time", and strengthened from strict environmental assessment checks, strengthening of plan management and early warning system construction. Environmental risk management and control, properly responding to environmental emergencies, and resolutely maintaining the bottom line of ecological environmental safety. Liu Youbin introduced three measures:
The first is to strengthen environmental emergency duty to ensure early detection, early dispatch and early disposal of environmental emergencies.
The second is to strengthen information disclosure and urge the local government to implement the "5·24" requirements (authoritative information will be released within 5 hours, and press conferences will be held within 24 hours) when major or sensitive environmental incidents occur.
The third is to scientifically handle various environmental emergencies. Once an environmental emergency occurs, send people to the scene as soon as possible to guide and urge relevant departments and localities to properly handle it, minimize the ecological hazards caused by the environmental emergency, and protect the environmental safety of the people to the greatest extent.