Workers prepare a mixture of aluminium polychlorid used to dilute the heavy metals that polluted the Liujiang River in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, January 31, 2012. Photo: CFP
The 3.7 million residents of Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, kicked off the Year of the Dragon with a panic-stricken scramble for clean drinking water.
A warning went out that the city might have to cut drinking water supplies after more than 20 tons of industrial waste contaminated with the heavy metal cadmium had spilled into the Longjiang River some 60 kilometers upstream.
Water samples in the worst-hit areas showed levels of cadmium 80 times higher than national standards. Local fish farmers, where the spill by two companies occurred, had their stocks virtually wiped out and hundreds of villagers had to have their drinking water trucked in.
Cadmium is an extremely toxic heavy metal used in industrial applications from batteries to smelting.
The toxic spill that interrupted the third day of Spring Festival was resolved after government workers poured bags of a neutralizing agent into the river near an upstream dam. Authorities say the river water near Liuzhou is no longer in danger and tests show it meets safety standards.
The incident seems a rerun of an all-too-familiar story, one that environmentalists say puts economic development ahead of the health of millions of people, especially those in remote areas.
People also complain that unscrupulous industrialists are being enabled by local governments that are failing to enforce environmental standards, while keeping the public mainly in the dark.
Toxic villages
Heavy metal contamination is polluting rivers, the seas and farmland and challenging the central government which for years has issued edicts aimed at curbing spills and requiring safer handling of toxic substances.
Still the accumulation of toxins, and the historic laissez faire attitude toward environmental degradation, has contributed to a shocking list of communities where residents face serious health hazards.
Now reports are emerging of "cancer villages" in rural China where villagers have developed horrific diseases caused by an accumulation of heavy metals in the soil, water and ultimately their food. It's only recently that some local health authorities have made the correlation between years of mismanagement of hazardous wastes and a sometimes exponential increase in deadly diseases.
"Factories keep polluting, adding to the accumulation, we've now reached the stage of the last straw," said Ma Jun, founder of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs.
Official statistics show about one 10th of China's arable land and about 12 million tons of the country's annual grain production are polluted by heavy metal.
Many experts say the problem is much worse and have determined that 10 percent of the rice sold on the market contains high levels of cadmium.
A recently released report by the Ministry of Environmental Protection showed that in 2009 the cost of environmental deterioration and ecological damage accounted for 3.8 percent of the GDP that year, an increase of 9.2 percent from the previous year.
"The recent cadmium pollution incident (in Guangxi) again shows the urgency of the challenge we face," said Ma.
Authorities in Guangxi announced that two companies were the source of the cadmium. Although the companies denied they were solely responsible for the toxic waste, the managers were detained and local environmental protection officials were dismissed or punished.
The Guangxi government also vowed to begin a wider clean-up of polluters and started to crack down on small mines and industrial workshops. They said over the next five years they would transform industries that use the heavy metals, which are the pillar of the local economy, to make them adhere to greener production methods.