A video monitoring system has started up in the waste-water discharge areas of seven key industrial enterprises in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, the city's environment authority said on Thursday.

Most of the facilities are involved in making concrete, mining ore, refining metals or processing wool in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China. Twelve other facilities will be included in the monitoring system at a later date.

The city will be able to monitor waste discharge around the clock by using the system. In the past, enterprises had to file periodic reports through a third-party waste survey organization, and officials inspected the companies two or three times a year.

While these enterprises had properly disposed of waste in line with national standards, the new monitoring initiative will help to make their future operations environmentally safe, said Guo Guangliang, vice director of the administration.

The system is an important technological back-up to ensure safe sewage discharges and improve efficiency, said Pei Pengxia, vice mayor of Lhasa.

Tibet had spent more than 80 million yuan (US$11.7 million) on pollution control and prevention campaigns as of 2007, achieving safe levels of emissions and waste discharge from local enterprises, according to Zhang Yongze, chief of Tibet's environment protection administration.

(Xinhua News Agency December 18, 2008)