I am not going to write anything today because you must read this article from Caijing Magazine: Heavy Metal Warfare. It covers the smelting industry along the Xiang river in Hunan province 1 the , and in the process provides a telling picture of the challenges faced by Chinese environmental regulators across the vast rural areas of the country. Here’s an example:
When a small smelter on the list of the government’s closure plan refused to stop production well after its deadline had passed, the county chief, flanked by local NPC delegates, relevant government agencies and armed paramilitary police, stormed into the plant and destroyed its furnaces with three tons of dynamite.
Those county official deserve zinc medals, as does Caijing for publishing this well-written and important story.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Brad Luo // Aug 12, 2009 at 11:14 am
Charlie, indeed a great story. Bombing polluting smelting furnaces for environmental protection in China, Priceless!
Years ago, when I was still an undergrad student in Wuhan, I thought the East Lake and the Changjiang River were badly polluted. Then, I went to Huhan and saw and smelled the Xiang River. It was so polluted that I thought the pollution I saw in Wuhan was actually not too bad (ok, it was/is pretty bad).
Chairman Mao would be tossing and turning in his grave had he found out how disgusting his beloved Xiang Jiang has become.
独立寒秋，湘江北去，橘子洲头。
看万山红遍，层林尽染；
漫江碧透，百舸争流。
鹰击长空，鱼翔浅底，
万类霜天竞自由。
怅寥廓，问苍茫天地，谁主沉浮？
……
2 Solarcaine // Aug 12, 2009 at 11:28 am
To look on the positive side, the public admission that “mercury, cadmium, lead and arsenic discharged into the Xiang River in 2007 accounted for 54.5 percent, 37 percent, 6 percent and 14.1 percent of the country’s total discharge, respectively” is actually pretty admirable when you think about it. If I’m understanding correctly that that was a statement to the public.
3 Greg // Aug 12, 2009 at 1:58 pm
Those two very gaunt looking men are standing over what appears to be a drain pipe. Maybe they ought to cut it open and pour concrete into it.
The local officials taking that kind of action into their own hands is very commendable, but is a sign of simmering unrest about to boil over. Obviously no local people had a hand in that plant otherwise it might not have been bombed. What if some Beijing officials or the PLA had a hand in that plant?
I think there may be alot of this going on deeper in the country side but also backlash from powerful and distant owners seeking revenge.
Environmental civil uprisings are discussed throughout US DOD and UK MOD documents on the geopolitical effects of climate change and dwindling resources.
BTW Charlie, are you or any of your staff or connections going to be in Stockholm for World Water Week?
4 duncan // Dec 28, 2009 at 9:32 pm
In Xiang River people may find a lot of metallic elements now a days just like in some developing areas in the world, this should be a community issue.
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