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Peasants Pay the Price

Another example of the Chinese dictatorship’s total lack of respect for the lives of the Chinese people. This time, the protagonist in this tragic story is Liangqiao, a small farm village in Southern China, known as a "Cancer Village." The village is located on the banks of the Hengshui River, whose waters are the unfortunate recipient of the wastewaters of an iron ore mine located 35 miles upstream. The mine is run by a state-owned company. The waters are contaminated by heavy metals like arsenic and cadmium, which are exposed by the mining. The lack of treatment plants for the mine’s wastewaters has caused the condition of the river to reach a disastrous level. The inhabitants of the village report that the doctor from the local hospital gave the villagers the following advice: don’t drink the water and don’t eat the rice! (the heavily polluted water is used to irrigate the fields).

Jingjing Zhang, an attorney from Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims who is working with the inhabitants of the village in their case against the government, affirms that the Dabaoshan mines have been poisoning the Hengshui River for decades. Out of a population of 400, 28 have died of cancer in the last 10 years. This is a significantly higher percentage then the percentage reported for the rest of the population of China. The company that manages the mine, according to Zhang, paid the entire population of the village a sum of 1,700 yuan ($200) for a year's worth of damages. The governor of the region met with the villagers and reassured them that the quality of the waters 'respects environmental standards.'

But the Huanan Agricultural University affirms that the waters are too toxic for any human use. The Chinese media itself reports that 300 million people in China do not have access to clean drinking water. Some of the worst pollution occurs in the small villages. Villagers began to die of cancer during the 1980s.

The mine produces 850,000 tons of iron ore per year. In 2004 it earned a profit of roughly $10 million.

Liangqiao is one of 20 to 50 "cancer villages" in China that are paying the price for China’s economic growth.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0804/23/acd.02.html http://www.coxwashington.com/hp/content/reporters/stories/2007/02/19/BC_CHINA_POLLUTION18_COX.html

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