SHENZHEN will implement rules to eliminate at least 10 percent of the enterprises that seriously pollute the Maozhou River, Shenzhen’s environment commission said Tuesday.

    Before the end of 2016, small workshops that dye products and galvanization factories that don’t meet environmental standards will be closed. The environmental protection authorities will close unlicensed workshops that directly discharge industrial waste into the 14.8-kilometer river, which is the most polluted river in Guangdong Province.

    Before the end of 2017, all the galvanization factories will be closed. New high-level polluting factories won’t get approval to open along the banks of the Maozhou River. Factories that fail to meet standards will not be approved to expand.

    Polluting factories won’t be able to renew their rental contracts.

    “We are trying to eliminate polluting factories and improve water quality,” said Li Shuisheng, deputy chief of the city’s environment commission.

    The commission set a target of bringing 95 percent of liquids discharged into the Maozhou River up to environmental standards by the end of 2017.

    The Maozhou River is still seriously polluted despite the fact that the Shenzhen water resources bureau mentioned treatment 14 years ago in its 10th five-year program.

    There are around 600 polluting factories along the banks that have been included in the commission’s supervision list and the commission will adopt an environmental credit rating system. Factories that have been blacklisted will have difficulty getting loans.

    “This plan is the strictest in the Maozhou River’s treatment history,” said Wang Bin with the commission’s regulation department. (Han Ximin)