'Smog police' inundated with complaints

The so-called 'smog police' that are responsible for curbing air pollution in the Chinese capital of Beijing are being overwhelmed by the number of complaints they are receiving.

As the city tries to impose strict new standards on thousands of organisations responsible for polluting the atmosphere, environmental inspectors admit that they are struggling to keep pace with a rising number of cases.

In recent months, China has done much to identify and own up to its smog problem, and has laid out many measures it claims will help to reduce its negative impact on the environment and general populace, but the new admission from the inspectorate highlights the growing logistical problems that the country's war on pollution is encountering.

Despite having a 500-strong squad of environmental enforcers, China is struggling to cope with the sheer volume of complaints, said Li Xiang, an inspector with the municipal environmental protection bureau.

"We have a total of 500 inspectors throughout the city, and it is certainly far, far from enough to ensure proper oversight," he explained.

The problem has exacerbated since March, when Premier Li Keqiang put Beijing at the centre of the "war against pollution", and subsequently punished 652 industrial facilities for breaching environmental regulations there in the first four months of this year.

The country's central government has pledged to reverse the damage done by years of untrammeled growth and bolster powers to shut down and punish firms found guilty of pollution.

While this has had a positive impact on encouraging people to come forward and report organisations that are breaking the rules, the groundswell of complaints has proven too much for the inspection force, Li noted.

"There are just too many cases [around 5,000-6,000 a month]. One after another they come to our department and it becomes impossible - we can only adopt a guiding role and do our best to set up standard working procedures for the most important cases," he elaborated.

As Beijing and the rest of the country aims to get tough on pollution and reverse its damage, Li says more staff need to be employed to ensure complaints are followed up and offenders are penalised.