China fires 5 officials over arsenic-tainted water
10/14/2008 | 06:19 PM
BEIJING - Five local officials in southern China have been fired after hundreds of villagers were sickened by arsenic-contaminated drinking water, a state-run news agency said Tuesday.
The China News Service reported that the officials in Hechi, a city in Guangxi province, were dismissed for poor management and oversight that led to the pollution of a drinking water source by industrial waste.
It said the officials were from the local environmental protection bureau and the city and district government.
Calls to the city government, the local Communist Party office and the health protection bureau rang unanswered Tuesday.
State media have said 450 people from two villages began showing symptoms of arsenic poisoning two weeks ago, including swelling in the face and eyes, vomiting and blurred eyesight.
An investigation found that the villagers' water source had been polluted by waste from a metals company, Jinhai Metallurgy Chemical, a branch of state-owned Liuzhou China Tin Co. Ltd. The factory has been closed since the contamination was detected.
Hechi authorities said torrential rains from a recent typhoon caused wastewater from the company to overflow into nearby ponds and wells, the official Xinhua News Agency reported earlier.
China's double-digit economic growth has been accompanied by a surge in toxic industries. The country has 16 of the world's 20 most heavily polluted cities.
China's Communist leadership has recently become more sensitive to the environmental cost of the country's economic boom after a series of high-profile pollution accidents along rivers disrupted water supplies to major cities. Farmers have protested over tainted water supplies and ruined land. - AP
The China News Service reported that the officials in Hechi, a city in Guangxi province, were dismissed for poor management and oversight that led to the pollution of a drinking water source by industrial waste.
It said the officials were from the local environmental protection bureau and the city and district government.
Calls to the city government, the local Communist Party office and the health protection bureau rang unanswered Tuesday.
State media have said 450 people from two villages began showing symptoms of arsenic poisoning two weeks ago, including swelling in the face and eyes, vomiting and blurred eyesight.
An investigation found that the villagers' water source had been polluted by waste from a metals company, Jinhai Metallurgy Chemical, a branch of state-owned Liuzhou China Tin Co. Ltd. The factory has been closed since the contamination was detected.
Hechi authorities said torrential rains from a recent typhoon caused wastewater from the company to overflow into nearby ponds and wells, the official Xinhua News Agency reported earlier.
China's double-digit economic growth has been accompanied by a surge in toxic industries. The country has 16 of the world's 20 most heavily polluted cities.
China's Communist leadership has recently become more sensitive to the environmental cost of the country's economic boom after a series of high-profile pollution accidents along rivers disrupted water supplies to major cities. Farmers have protested over tainted water supplies and ruined land. - AP
