CDC finds cancer link to Huai River
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Villagers tried to sue a chemical plant near Dongxing for pollution, but they lost the case due to a lack of evidence.
"The crops we grow become toxic because the plant polluted water in the village, but we didn't know how to collect evidence," Duan Degui, one of the villagers, alleged in comments printed in the SMD.
In a report released by the MOH in 2008, cancer was listed as one of the major causes of death among Chinese people living in rural areas.
China's Ministry of Land and Resources released a report in 2007 showing that about 150 million mu (100,000 square kilometers) of cultivated fields had been polluted.
Song Zhaolai, a strategic analyst specializing in government administration, wrote in his book, China's Trend, that many of the plants polluting lands with illegal discharges have close ties with local governments because of their contributions to local GDPs.
Some government officials prioritize economic development over environment protection because their performance is mostly assessed by their GDP numbers, the book said, citing Wang Hongying, director of the Energy and Economics Study Center of the Shanxi Academy of Social Sciences.
On July 3, a leak of 2.4 million gallons of acidic copper waste from Zijin Mining Group's flagship mine in Fujian Province resulted in a polluted river and almost 2,000 metric tons of poisoned fish, reports said.
To cover the fact that the local government failed to supervise Zijin's operations before the incident, some local officials said that the copper waste was toxic to fish, but not to people, ifeng.com reported.
"China has been developing at the expense of the environment. This must be ended now," Ma said. "Both the 11th and the 12th Five-Year Plans include an index for curbing environmental pollution, which is progress for the whole nation."
He said the lack of green technology also makes the treatment of industrial waste too costly, forcing many companies to discharge illegally.
"We have established a database recording pollution cases announced by local governments. There are 70,000 entries now, and 320 companies have been forced to curb pollution," Ma told the Global Times. "However, the Huai River is just one of the many rivers in China that are severely polluted. We still have a long way to go."
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