Beijing: An environment agency official in China has been awarded six-year imprisonment for his involvement in a river pollution incident in 2013.
The official belongs to country’s Guangxi Zhuang region.
Huang Qiang, former director of environmental monitoring at the municipal environment bureau of Hezhou,took bribes from Huiwei,an ore processor who polluted in the Hejiang river, Xinhua quoted the district court as saying.
Huang took 50,000 yuan (about $8,000) in cash and gifts of tobacco and alcohol from the owner of Huiwei in May 2013, for helping the company get a pollutant discharge permit to which they were not entitled.
Learning that the company had been involved in poisoning the Hejiang, Huang returned the 50,000 yuan.
The pollution of the Hejiang river was discovered in early July 2013 when dead fish were spotted. Investigation suggested that the pollutants were thallium and cadmium, both toxic to humans.