Abstract
China has suffered frequent water pollution incidents in recent years, and information disclosure on relevant hazards is often delayed and insufficient. The purpose of this paper is to unearth the latent resistance, and analyze the institutional arrangements and countermeasures. After reviewing representative journal literature about environmental information disclosure, this paper provides a theoretical review based on a comparison of the ontological differences between stakeholder theory and fraud triangle theory. A tentative application of fraud triangle theory as a means of explaining the phenomenon is proposed. Empirical analysis is undertaken to verify the tentative theoretical explanation. Based on news reports from Chinese official news websites, content analysis on longitudinal case evidence of representative water pollution incidents is applied, to contribute to unearthing the mechanism of the latent resistance towards information disclosure. The results show that local government agencies have a dominant position vis a vis information disclosure, but that some important actors rarely participate in information disclosure, which provides a chance for local government agencies’ information disclosure to commit fraud. The phenomenon, its essence, and proposed countermeasures are discussed and explained by referring to recent governmental environmental practices in China. Promising research topics are illuminated, providing enlightenment for future study.
Highlights
One-fifth of rivers contain high concentrations of pollutants [1]
Delayed information disclosure on hazards from industrial water pollution incidents result in reduced response times, and cause panic downstream
Symbols G, A2, J and H locate in the most remote positions relative to other actors, meaning that Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), polluter related firms, water supply plants, and insiders seldom take the actors, meaning that NGOs, polluter related firms, water supply plants, and insiders seldom take the initiative in disclosing information
Summary
One-fifth of rivers contain high concentrations of pollutants [1]. Water pollution in China poses huge health risks [2], and is the cause of huge economic losses [3]. Frequent water pollution incidents and delayed information disclosure on the associated hazards have become an increasing concern in. River pollution incident endured a concealment of nine days. An earlier official statement informed the public that only water and carbon dioxide came from the chemical plant explosion, and that no pollutant entered the river system. News of pollution caused by the Zijin Mining Corporation was concealed for nine days. Delayed information disclosure on hazards from industrial water pollution incidents result in reduced response times, and cause panic downstream. It is inefficient to enforce information disclosure on the hazards stemming from industrial
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