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The reporter recently learned from the Mentougou Procuratorate that the procuratorate has concluded a public interest litigation case on drinking water safety. In this case, the Mentougou Procuratorate fully exerted its public interest litigation procuratorial function, continued to follow up on the implementation of rectification, and protected the safety of the "last mile" of drinking water.

On April 8, 2024, the Mentougou Procuratorate, relying on the "12345 hotline + digital prosecution" complaint handling mechanism, found several clues of complaints from a village in Mentougou. Villagers complained that "the drinking water in our village is not clean. Villagers dare not drink well water and can only buy bottled water. No one has been caring."

After receiving the clues, the Mentougou Procuratorate immediately went to the village more than 50 kilometers away to conduct a preliminary investigation, and commissioned the district CDC to test the village's drinking water. The test found that the total number of E. coli and the total number of colonies in the two tap water exceeded the standard. In order to find out the cause of the excessive amount, the Mentougou Procuratorate conducted another on-site investigation.It was found that the village had no water source well disinfection facilities and that the facilities were not operating normally.Excessive amounts of total E. coli and total bacterial colonies in drinking water may cause multiple local tissue and organ infections such as the gastrointestinal tract or urethra. Due to the emergency situation in which the risk of villagers' health being harmed continues to expand, the Mentougou Procuratorate issued a procuratorial recommendation to the two administrative agencies, requiring them to investigate and deal with situations within 15 days where drinking water hygiene does not meet standards, disinfection facilities are not installed, and are not operating normally.

After receiving the procuratorial suggestions, the two agencies actively implemented them, carried out rectification and replied within 15 days, imposed administrative penalties in accordance with the law, and restored the normal operation of the disinfection facilities. However, after evaluating the rectification effect, when the terminal water after disinfection was commissioned for water quality testing again, it was found that the total colony group in the terminal water had met the standard, and the total E. coli group still did not meet the national standard. The Mentougou Procuratorate kept a close eye on the problem of inadequate rectification, continued to follow up and supervise, and urged the administrative agency to explain the situation and continue to perform its duties for the second time. The administrative agency found out that the disinfection was incomplete due to insufficient reaction of the agent, adjusted the agent ratio, and issued a water quality test report. On July 4, 2024, the Mentougou Procuratorate went to the mountains for the seventh time to carry out a "second look back."After testing, the water quality of the village's terminal water has met national standards.

When handling the case, the Mentougou Procuratorate also found that the village's sewage treatment plant was not operating normally, resulting in sewage overflow that did not meet the surface water environmental quality standards. By issuing procuratorial recommendations, the Mentougou Procuratorate promoted administrative agencies to install integrated sewage treatment devices, and invited Gao Xinyu, a district people's congress representative and a town labor coordinator, and Zhu Zhishuai, a volunteer for the "Yixinweigong" program and a doctoral student at the Minzu University of China, to participate in the offline and online "review". After joint evaluation,The problem of sewage overflow has been effectively controlled.Zhu Zhishuai, a volunteer of "Benefiting the Public" and a doctoral student of Minzu University of China, said: "In response to the clues of livelihood found through big data screening, the public interest litigation of Mentougou Procuratorate has accelerated, quickly solving the problems of drinking water safety and sewage overflow in the deep mountains, and returning clean water and a good ecology to the people."

Source: Beijing Daily Client

Reporter: Xu Huiyao

Process Editor: u070