China severely punishes causing pollution

The benzene spill pollutes both China and neighboring Russia (Photo: AP)

Xinhua said the Jilin petrochemical firm was ordered to pay a million yuan ($ 125,000) fine for polluting the Songhua River in 2005.

An explosion of a chemical plant in Jilin Province made about 100 tons of benzene flow into the Songhua River. Harbin city has been dehydrated for 5 days in a row, and Russia is also affected. China's State Environmental Protection Agency said the company committed three crimes, breaking environmental laws.

Last year, China said it had imposed an " administrative fine " on a provincial official and some officials ran PetroChina. Benzene then spread out a trail of 80km along the Songhua River. This polluted water flows into Harbin, making 3.8 million people without clean water. It then continued to flow and polluted the Russian city of Khabarovsk.

China announced in March last year that it would spend $ 1.2 billion to clean up the river. This incident strained the relationship between China and Russia and it showed increasing problems about pollution in China.