Four defendants were ruled as guilty of contaminating a section of the Yellow River by a court in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous region and were penalized with a huge amount of compensations.
   
The four accused, namely, two paper mills, a chemical plant anda department in charge of drainage, have to jointly pay nearly 2.9 million yuan (US$356,000) for discharging approximately 1 million cubic meters of waste liquids from the upper reaches into the Yellow River over a year ago, according to the Intermediate People's Court in the city of Baotou.
   
The waste liquid, containing ammonia, nitrogen and volatile hydroxybenzene, led to a two-week grave pollution in a 400-meter section in the lower reaches of the river and a water-supply company. The plaintiff in the case was obliged to partially suspend the water transportation to some local companies and residents and thus suffer great economic losses.
   
It was China's first case concerning the pollution of the 5,464-km-long "mother river", which originates in northwest China's Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, traverses through nine provinces and regions before flowing into sea in Shandong Province.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2005)