The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) released the White Paper on Public Interest Litigation Prosecution Work in 2024 on March 9, outlining the efforts of procuratorial organs throughout the country in building a Beautiful China and better serving the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development.
"We have concluded a public interest litigation case on ship pollution control in the Yangtze River," said Xu Xiangchun, Director General of the Public Interest Litigation Procuratorial Department of the SPP.
Xu said that procuratorial organs at four levels fully leveraged the advantages of unified procuratorial efforts, sorting out 652 clues, filing 602 cases, and supervising the cleanup of 610,000 square meters of polluted water areas and beaches, with over 1,400 tons of sludge and solid waste and over 200 tons of hazardous waste removed.
Through these efforts, significant progress has been made in addressing challenges in the disposal of ship pollutants, promoting collaborative governance by multiple departments from regions in the basin, he said.
In response to prominent issues in the Yellow River basin, such as water resources protection, soil erosion control, industrial pollution, ecological governance of mines, flood prevention, and cultural relics and heritage protection, the SPP issued the Grassroots-Level Work Plan for Public Interest Litigation Prosecution over Protection of the Yellow River in 2024, intensifying efforts in public interest litigation.
Procuratorial organs in the nine cities along the Yellow River in East China's Shandong province handled 265 cases in areas including water resources protection, industrial pollution and ecological governance of mines, flood prevention, and cultural relics and heritage protection. They also issued 198 procuratorial suggestions, initiated litigation for 37 cases, and facilitated the resolution of a series of prominent issues in the Yellow River basin.
In 2024, the SPP also issued the Guidelines on Fully Leveraging the Function of Public Interest Litigation Prosecution to Assist in Rectification of Problems Found by the Central Leading Group for the Inspection Work of Ecological and Environmental Protection, guiding local procuratorial organs to enhance the efficiency in handling relevant cases.
Xu said that 39 cases and over 190 clues transferred by the central leading group for the third round of ecological and environment protection inspection were handled. Procuratorial organs also issued directives to assist in the rectification of problems reflected in the 2023 documentary that warned of ecological environment issues in the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Yellow River basin, and handled 227 clues related to ecological and environmental problems.
"The public interest litigation case on water environment governance in the Pearl River basin newly filed by the SPP has also achieved significant progress, with the cross-regional cooperation mechanism significantly improved," Xu noted.
While handling the case, the SPP focused on key issues such as pollution from mining and the tailing dam, urban and rural water pollution, pollution from farming, and ship pollution, as well as unregulated occupation, mining, stacking and construction in rivers and lakes, as well as monitoring of soil and water control, and water flow, he said. The case was handled in a coordinated manner through unified efforts of procuratorial organs at all levels, he added.
"Procuratorial organs across the country actively implemented the SPP's deployment concerning the Pearl River environmental case," Xu said.
Among them, procuratorial organs in Southwest China's Guizhou province handled 134 public interest litigation cases, pushing administrative departments to allocate over 38 million yuan ($5.2 million) for the construction and renovation of sewage facilities, and collect over 20.80 million yuan for mine restoration funds and soil and water control fees, he said. The procuratorial organs in South China's Guangdong province handled a total of 936 cases related to shipping pollution on the Pearl River, he added.
