564 Polluting Enterprises Were Forced to Close in Hunan in 2009    

On November 19th, Liang Qiusong, deputy director of Hunan Provincial Science & Technology Department, said that the provincial government will make a accumulative financial investment of RMB70 billion into the comprehensive pollution treatment of the Xiangjiang River Valley by the end of 2010, and a accumulative financial investment of RMB300 billion till 2015.
   He said the discharge volume of waste industrial water in Hunan province in 2008 decreased 24.6% from 2005, and COD discharge cut about 19.3%.
   Five hundred and sixty four polluting enterprises, in the Xiangjiang River Valley, in industries including smelting, chemical and light, have been forced to shut down since the beginning of 2009. Fifty nine enterprises have achieved the required water quality standards after treatment. And the number of paper-making enterprises quickly shrank to 207 from the initial 660.
   According to metrical data, the average water quality of the Xiangjiang River was fine in June 2009, disclosed Liang Qiusong.