MANY residents in Nanjing, the capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, awoke last Monday to find an extremely offensive smell had returned to their neighbourhoods, the Xiandai Kuaibao has reported.

　　The stench, according to statistics kept by the city's Environmental Protection Department, has assailed residents on almost 400 days since August 2001.

　　At 1:00am on September 8, a Nanjing resident surnamed Xie living on Beijing Xilu, dreamed he had fallen into a manure pit and was sinking deeper and deeper into it. When he awoke, the ugly odour was all through his home and he realized immediately the stench that had been disturbing his family for two years had returned once again. He closed all the windows of his home at once.

　　Many in his neighbourhood awoke to the same nightmare. Residents living in other parts of the city also complained about the smell.

　　The deputy director of Nanjing's Environmental Supervision Centre, surnamed Tang, said it was difficult for his staff to find the exact source of the pollution. According to regulations, the staff was only allowed to collect air samples for laboratory testing.

　　But such methods, Tang said, were only suitable for detecting serious gas leakages and the current pervasive stench was not as bad as that.

　　Tang said his staff had been busy working on the problem for the past two years but he refused to give any details about any findings.

　　Last June, when there was another similar large-scale "odour incident" in Nanjing, the environmental protection staff said they had found the source of the pollution - chemical plants located in the north of the city.

　　But the situation didn't improve and on September 2, a resident named Mao Zihui hired two lawyers who sent a complaint to the Nanjing Environmental Protection Bureau.

　　Four days later, Mao received an invitation from the bureau to attend the hearing on this issue this week and he hoped officials will be able to give residents a satisfactory answer.