[Explanation] "Four lakes are difficult to live in four provinces", the Nansi Lake environmental public interest litigation case involving the four provinces of Sulu, Henan, and Anhui has attracted nationwide attention due to the direct filing of the case by the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

On February 11, Zhang Xueqiao, deputy chief prosecutor of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said in a video interview with Chinanews.com that the "South Four Lakes Project" 300 days has achieved remarkable results in watershed environmental governance.

  [Concurrent] Zhang Xueqiao, Deputy Procurator of the Supreme People's Procuratorate

  Now we have achieved obvious results in environmental governance through the 300-day public interest litigation.

Originally, the severe black and odorous water bodies in the lake area decreased from 15% to 10% in one year, and the moderately black and odorous water bodies decreased from 53% to 32%. This effect is obvious.

  [Explanation] The Nansi Lake Basin involves 34 counties and municipalities in 4 provinces, 8 cities, and the root cause of the difficulty in governance lies in the non-uniform law enforcement standards across the basin.

Zhang Xueqiao said that among the four types of pollution: industrial pollution, domestic pollution, agricultural pollution, and ship pollution, the current standards for triple pollution have been unified.

  [Concurrent] Zhang Xueqiao, Deputy Procurator of the Supreme People's Procuratorate

  Yesterday's hearing also showed the discharge standards for industrial pollution in our four provinces. The discharge standards for industrial wastewater have been unified.

There is also the treatment of domestic sewage involved. Anhui, Jiangsu, and Shandong are also promoting uniform standards in this regard.

  [Explanation] The positioning of public interest litigation is not to win or lose in court, but to focus on the protection of public interests, Zhang Xueqiao said, while environmental public interest litigation should not only protect the ecological environment, but also protect the vital interests of the people, so as to achieve a win-win situation.

  [Concurrent] Zhang Xueqiao, Deputy Procurator of the Supreme People's Procuratorate

  When encountering some difficulties, administrative organs may not be able to solve them simply by relying on administrative penalties. The production of enterprises does not stop.

In this case, the procuratorial organ will take the lead in the natural resources department at the same time to solve the problem of environmental pollution. You are here to approve a piece of land so that the enterprise can have the land to build a factory and continue production. In this way, the development of the enterprise and the local production With the development of the economy, the problem of people's employment and life has also been solved. This is the real win-win situation. It is necessary to protect the public interests of environmental protection and the vital interests of the people.

  [Explanation] Regarding China's environmental public interest litigation practice, Zhang Xueqiao said that the procuratorial organs help the ecological environment department to gnaw away the "hard bones" by handling environmental public interest litigation. This institutional advantage has been highly appraised by prosecutors in many Western countries.

  [Concurrent] Zhang Xueqiao, Deputy Procurator of the Supreme People's Procuratorate

  This is the first of its kind in the world, and only China has this system. By handling public interest litigation, the administrative procuratorial organs have helped the ecological environment department to gnaw away the hard bones, solve the problems, and improve the governance capacity, the rule of law, and the level of the rule of law.

The administrative public interest litigation system developed by the Chinese procuratorial organs has been obtained by many countries. Common law systems such as the United Kingdom and the United States, and civil law systems including Brazil and Finland have paid great attention to this system in China, and relevant prosecutors have given high evaluations. .

  [Explanation] Talking about empowering public interest litigation with technology, Zhang Xueqiao said that public interest litigation and prosecution cover a wide range of fields. In the future, in handling cases in more aspects such as personal information protection and food safety, improving the technical support capability of prosecutors must be the direction of efforts. .

  [Concurrent] Zhang Xueqiao, Deputy Procurator of the Supreme People's Procuratorate

  The handling of public interest litigation by procuratorial organs involves many aspects and fields, and procuratorial technology is an important support.

In our case, satellite technology was used. Then, do we have additives in other areas, including food. In this regard, we need to have scientific and technological means to discover prohibited ingredients.

As long as there is a problem, the problem is the direction of our next work.

  Reporter Shan Lu reports from Beijing

Responsible editor: [Tian Boqun]