Chinese executives sentenced for polluting lake

BEIJING (Reuters) - Three company executives were sentenced to prison for dumping arsenic-laced waste into a lake in southwest China, in a sign that industrial pollution is being taken more seriously.

The executives of Chengjiang Jinye Industry and Trade Co will spend 3-4 years in prison and were fined for dumping waste including arsenic in the lake from 2001, as well as expanding their fertilizer plant without approval, Xinhua news agency said Tuesday.

Water pollution is gaining attention in China after a series of accidents in which drinking water was contaminated or cut off entirely due to industrial pollution. Syill, it is often cheaper for companies to pay fines for polluting -- or block inspectors altogether -- than to clean up their discharges.

"It's good that they pursued this case, but the better approach would be to take preventative action," said Alex Wang, director of the National Resources Defense Counsel in Beijing.

Chengjiang Jinye was ordered to close in September, after the Yangzonghai lake, which provides water for 26,000 people near the city of Yuxi in Yunnan Province, was found to be heavily contaminated with arsenic in June.

The company was fined 16 million yuan ($2.34 million), Xinhua said.

By March this year, the volume of arsenic had been lowered from 0.128 mg per liter to 0.111 mg per liter, Xinhua said, but added it will take three years and 4 billion yuan to reduce the arsenic to a safe level of below 0.05 mg per liter.

($1=6.826 Yuan)

(Reporting by Lucy Hornby; Editing by David Fox)