Villagers Poisoned By Pollution (China)

SKY News ^ | July 16, 2007 | By Peter Sharp - Asia correspondent

[JACKRUSSELL]

The Chinese government has been accused of attempting to cover up nearly three quarters of a million deaths caused by rampant pollution.

Chinese officials reportedly tried to censor a World Bank document that found filthy air and water prematurely kill 750,000 people every year in China.

One woman told Sky News that people in her village are paying for the pollution with their lives.

Wei Dongying took us down the Qiantang River in a tiny fishing at night, as flashes of lightning lit up the huge expanse of water.

An overpowering stench of chemicals and a thick slick of foam meant we were on course.

The industrial plants on the shoreline discharge their illegal waste - secretly - at night. And this was the only way to prove that this illegal activity was still continuing.

Wei Dongying has known these waters since childhood. Fisherwoman turned environmentalist, she has been watching the destruction of the river in the Yangtze Delta for the last four years.

"There it is," she said, pointing to a frothy, bubbling, stinking brew of industrial sewage breaking to the surface from a release pipe below.

"It's like this every night. Sometimes the foam is black, sometimes yellow or red."

She collects samples of the polluted water - but she knows it is evidence that will continue to be ignored.

The polluting powerhouses and workshops along the banks of the Yangzte River Delta are clogging its arteries.

Rivers - once filled with freshwater fish - are silted with a lethal sludge, a thick viscous cocktail of raw waste and industrial chemicals.

And the town of Wuli, surrounded by back-to-back chemical factories, lies smack in the middle of it.

This is where Wei lives. Four years ago she was diagnosed with cancer. Then the fish began to die. To Wei the link was clear.

Now she has been threatened by local officials for daring to speak out.

"I'm frightened of them, but I'm more frightened that our children and grandchildren will be sick and will never see green hills and clear water," she said.

For others in the village her warnings have come too late.

Mr Zhu, a local shopkeeper, told me his wife died of cancer three months ago. She was just 49.

He said: "I blame the chemical factories and the government for doing nothing about the pollution.

"When I miss my wife I look at her photograph. But there is nothing I can do about what happened."

But in China it's not enough to live in this toxic environment. Here you face arrest if you speak out against it.

Xu Xie Hua's husband, a well known environmentalist, was taken away by police when they they broke into their home at night.

"I haven't seen him for two months - not since they took him away," Mrs Xu said.

"I miss him. His shadow is everywhere. All I can do is fight to clear his name."

She knows that won't be easy. Now plainclothes police sit in her garden round the clock, watching her.

Fear and intimidation are the price you pay for daring to raise your voice against the destruction of China's environment.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

I hate to think what it smells like...:0/

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

It's worse than even this article details.

Approximately 90% of China's groundwater is polluted. It won't be any comfort to use water from wells in China.

Ironically, the Chinese may kill themselves, by poisoning, before they ever become an imminent threat to others.

[rsobin]

My son has just returned from an extended stay in China. You can’t see the sky, the stars or hardly the moon. Every waterway ,lake, and pond was covered with a slimy, smelly foam . This neglect of the land will short circuit their economic development.

[sweetiepiezer]

Thanks for the ping.

China is so digusting.

[MrB]

Going after the gerbils will incite the ire of the homosexual community...