Chemical spill pollutes water supply in north-eastern China

international | environment | other press

Thursday December 01, 2005 13:25

by Terry

Drinking water contaminated by an accidental release of benzene

This story neatly illustrates something that doesn't get the attention it deserves and that is how increasingly pollution threatens millions and is likely to become a bigger and bigger burden on humanity as we push the environment to it's limits.

This story reports on the release of 100 tonnes of the chemical benzene from a factory in North Eastern China on Nov 13th into the Songhua river where downstream lies the city Harbin where millions live.

Benzene is a very poisonous chemical that is carcinogen and causes diseases ranging from mouth ulcers to blood disorders, liver damage and leukemia.

Even though the quantities released seem relatively small, this amount has the potential to permanently contaminate the water table over a wide area.

The Chinese authorities initially played down the accident and kept it largely hidden from the public and their delay means that people along the river and in thousands of villages will have already drunk the water.

The burden this disaster places on the population affected is probably incalcuable and this is what makes the story important. So often the rapid development in China is hailed as fanastic progress and is implicity used as proof of the success of the endless growth model. It is clear that China already has severe environmental problems, particularly with their soil and rapidly falling water tables. With something like this adding a tremendous burden of long lasting ill-health combined with similar disasters elsewhere much of the 'progress' promises to be very short lived indeed and to possibly unravel.

But this story is not just a lesson for China, it is also indictative of the wider world and environment where similar things happen on a regular basis because the negative effects of unsustainable development everywhere will eventually overwhelm the possibility of any 'growth' and result in a reversal. [ For example see some of the writings of Jay Forrestor on system dynamics and interactions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Wright_Forrester
and http://dieoff.org/page23.htm ]

Not only that, the inherent corruption of officials and the Chinese system and the total contempt for the population is something we see everywhere else, although it is often usually managed better in terms of the PR front. It is this rot in the social fabric or rather political system that is part and parcel and a symptom of the assault on the environment everywhere.

Here's some extracts from the story itself:

In the face of the panic, Harbin officials and CNPC were compelled to admit that the explosion in Jilin would affect the city’s water supply, but falsely stated that the chemicals released into the river were “harmless” and water quality was “normal”.

On November 23, the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) finally confirmed that the Songhua River contained benzene levels at least 100 times above the safe limit. While the slick finally reached the main inlet to Harbin’s water supply on November 24, the delay in issuing any warning meant that hundreds of thousands of people living in villages and towns along the Songhua River between Jilin and Harbin may have drunk or used contaminated water.

AND

The Chinese government has acknowledged that its agencies began monitoring the benzene levels of the water within hours of the Jilin explosion. According to the state-run journal China Newsweek, the Heilongjiang provincial governor Zhang Zuoji told a meeting of officials that they decided to lie to the public about the toxicity because they were waiting for permission from the central leadership to disclose the spill...

.....One reason for the reluctance to release information on the contamination is that exposure of the government’s inaction could fuel already widespread discontent in the north-east toward the regime.

And for an indication of some of the environmental problems in China:

Companies in China are pouring pollutants into the air, soil and water on a daily basis. The World Bank has reported that 6 of the 10 most polluted cities in the world are in China, and estimated that pollution costs the country $54 billion a year in related environmental degradation, loss of life or disease. This sum is almost equal to annual amount of foreign direct investment that flows into the country.

Acid rain is falling on one third of Chinese territory. More than 70 percent of the country’s lakes and rivers are polluted and less than 20 percent of solid waste is treated. A report on rural China by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on November 14 noted: “Many lakes and water courses contain an excess of nutrients and need treatment before they are suitable as fresh water sources.”

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Chemical spill pollutes water supply in north-eastern China