Yancheng City’s Water Pollution Attracts National Attention and Debate
With the melamine poisoning cases unresolved and the Yangzonghai Lake arsenic contamination yet to be cleaned up, another serious pollution case shook China last week. Yancheng, a city in Jiangsu Province, saw over 200,000 people affected when the source for their drinking water was contaminated with carbolic acid emitted by a local factory. News of the pollution incident occupied the front pages of the national media for the entire week. From February 20 onwards, Yancheng stopped pumping tap water, affecting the lives of over 200,000 residents who were left with little more than used sewage water. The local Environmental Protection Bureau, Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Health quickly dispatched emergency response and inspection teams to restore clean water to the city. After the drinking water supply restored, discussion and debate, however, primarily centered on the the reasons behind the pollution incident. Local media raised the following concerns:
- Why did the company, named a “model enterprise” despite yearly pollution concerns, suddenly release 30 tons of wastewater over two days into the local drinking water source?
- Why was human smell and taste the only monitoring capacity at the local tap water plant?
- Why can so many polluting enterprises surround water sources for local drinking water?
The incident insipired much debate. Commentary in the Beijing News identified five “pollution sources”:
- Direct discharge into a water source
- Neglect of tap water company to monitor water quality
- Failure to properly approve and inspect chemical companies
- Neglect of longstanding public opinion towards local polluting enterprises
- Local Environmental Protection Bureau fails to apply the lessons from similar cases
The water pollution incident was not the first to happen in Yancheng, reported the Beijing News. In the last seven years, Yancheng experienced water source contamination about once every two years. And in the face of this continuing problem, environmental officials appeared powerless and took little action. In fact, the enterprise that caused the most recent crisis had been fined in 2005 for pollution discharge, but because of the low cost of paying fines, the violations continued and garnered additional complaints from local residents. The pollution was so severe, in fact, that local residents did not dare to use water from the river and even shunned eating the crops that had grown along the riverbank. While the river provided potable water for Yancheng’s 200,000 residents, the local tap water company had monitoring capabilities so poor that they were described as “alarming” in a Xinhua news report, with water quality control entirely dependent on the “smell and taste” of a worker at the plant. While the water plant was formerly state-owned, cost-cutting reforms in recent years had degraded its staff size and monitoring capabilities.
The public had wondered what the chemical plant was emitting, but it seemed that no one had any knowledge of the facts. Residents of the city had heard and seen firsthand a rise in esophagal cancer and lung cancer rates in Yancheng over the past few years. Jiangsu Province’s cancer rates account for 12% of all cancer cases in China, and water pollution is one of the primary causes. After the water pollution incident, the Yancheng city EPB’s website had no information on the incident. When citizens complained about the lack of timely information on the water pollution, the municipal propaganda office’s only explanation was that, without authoritative test results, they could not release any information. An emphasis on economic development overshadowed health and life concerns and created serious costs for Yancheng’s residents. As the Guangming Daily commented, one cannot “drink poison to quench the thirst,” that is, seek quick results without regard for consequences, in the name of economic development.
The issue of drinking water contamination in Yancheng had been raised in a proposal by the local Chinese People’s Political Consulatative Committee as early as 2004, but the problem remained unresolved and the pollution sources stayed in the area. In 2007 and 2008, Yancheng city government had undertaken policies to protect the water sources from pollution; 2009 was set as a target date for relocation of all chemical plants from the designated water conservation district. Two months ago, the Yancheng city government passed a three-year action plan to construct a “clear water passage” but was reluctant to broadcast the serious condition of the local water sources. According to news reports, the recent incident finally provided the motivation for the local government to issue the closure of all potential polluting factories located along the water’s path. Perhaps, for the people of Yancheng seeking clear water and blue skies, this served as a bell. Hopefully this is also the last alarm the residents see, as the price of life is simply too high.
Article links (English):
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-02/25/content_7509714.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/23/content_10873905.htm
http://english.cri.cn/6909/2009/02/26/1461s458030.htm
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-02/21/content_7498823.htm
[Update March 5, 2009: Chinese Mayor Orders Chemical Plant Closures: Decision in Yancheng comes after a phenol leak contaminated city's water supply]
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