A Chinese water company has won Rmb2.3m ($285,000, €241,000, £166,000) in compensation from two companies and an irrigation bureau blamed for one of the worst incidents of pollution to blacken the water of the fabled Yellow River.

The compensation payment reflected efforts to use the legal system as well as bureaucratic controls to reduce pollution but it also highlighted the environmental pressures on the waterway considered the cradle of Chinese civilisation.