2 held in China for polluting heritage canal

Two men have been arrested in China for allegedly discharging hazardous acid waste into the world's longest artificial canal listed under World Heritage site, officials said today.
The suspects were accused of releasing the waste into the Suzhou section of the 1,011-km-long Grand Canal, the world's oldest and longest artificial waterway, since October, 2013, the procuratorate in Wuzhong District, Suzhou City of Jiangsu Province, told the state-run Xinhua news agency.
They used waste acids to produce a water-purifying agent and then deliberately allowed the used material, stored in a leaky container, to enter the waterway which is only 10 metres from the container, the procuratorate said.

Local environmental protection authorities ordered them to stop production of the agent in December, 2013.
However, the suspects continued to collect waste acid from other factories, which paid them, about USD 20 to 24 per tonne, for disposal of the waste.
So far they obtained around USD 15,000 from factories and simply let the waste leak into the canal.
In June, 2014, UNESCO included the Grand Canal, with a history of more than 2,400 years, in the World Heritage list.
The waterway which runs from Beijing to Hangzhou in China's eastern Zhejiang province, is the largest civil engineering project before the Industrial Revolution.