Smog-prone Chinese province Hebei to offer big rewards for pollution whistle-blowers

A pedestrian wears a mask on a heavily polluted day in Shijiazhuang, in northern China's Hebei province on Dec 21, 2016. Hebei, which produces a quarter of China's steel, has long been on the front line of a nationwide "war on pollution". - AFP

SHANGHAI (Reuters): The smog-prone northern Chinese province of Hebei will reward whistle-blowers with cash payments of up to 100,000 yuan (US$14,700) if they report incidents of pollution to the authorities, the local environmental watchdog said on Tuesday (Aug 25).

Hebei, which produces a quarter of China's steel, has long been on the front line of a nationwide "war on pollution", launched in 2014 to reverse the environmental damage done by more than 30 years of breakneck industrial growth.