In recent years China has gone through a huge transformation as it enters its own industrial revolution. The shift from a communal economy to a privatized economy coupled with the rapid population growth has been a major force behind this transformation. One situation that is gaining momentum as a result of the the new industrialized market is environmental pollution. For the purpose of this section I will mainly discuss the issues that revolve around water. There main focal point of this issue is first the water scarcity which is directly related to water pollution. China ranks fourth in water resources but per capita is ranked one of the lowest (World Resource Institute). Part of the reason for the scarcity is that there are a high percentage of major water sources that have been contaminated by untreated industrial or household waste. Of these two contributing factors only 5% of household waste and 17% of industrial waste actually get treated (World Resource Institute).
A section of the Huang He (Yellow River) stained red by discharge flowing from a sewage pipe in Lanzhou, Gansu province, China. Associated Press
People vs. Industry/Chinese Water Pollution (Video)
People vs. Industry/Chinese Water Pollution (Video)
A worker cleaning dead fish at Guanqiao Lake in central China’s Hubei province last July. Hot weather and untreated industrial waste killed an estimated 50,000kg of fish. Drought, a growing population and booming industry led to critical water shortages. Last year the Yangtze river fell to its lowest level since 1866. Low water levels worsen the pollution diverted into lakes and rivers from manufacturing and sewage. guardian.co.uk
Household waste is increasingly becoming more of a dilemma. The rapid growth of the Chinese population has put enormous pressure on the surrounding environment especially in urban areas. As communities are being built quickly to fill the demand there is little attention paid to the water infrastructure of these areas. As a result sewage and water treatment are often lackluster, if not completely nonexistent. Human waste in the water supplies brings an array of diseases such as “parasitic flukes and worms; hepatitis A, bacterial dysentery, infectious diarrhea, para-cholera, and typhoid” (Changhua). Compounding the issue of human waste is the animal waste and fertilizers from the expansion of urban farming. The allowance of farmers to sell their surplus crops to a newly open market gave way to a large increase of urban agriculture. The effect of this is even more organic matter that includes the above mentioned pathogens coupled with increased nitrogen in the water. Increased levels of nitrogen from fertilizers give a perfect breeding ground to algae blooms. These blooms kill off natural flora and fauna by depleting the water of oxygen. This phenomenon is visible in many countries including our own region in the Gulf of Mexico. Though human and animal wastes are large contributors to the problem industrial waste takes the cake when it comes to water pollution in China.
greendiary.com
As a new era of a privatized market has risen there is a new pressure on industrial production and local governments to generate income. The state has sold many of it industrial factories to private investors. There are also new industrial areas popping up all over the countryside to fuel the demand. Because there is such an emphasis on industrial growth often times little attention is paid to the impacts that these factories have on the surrounding environments. Bryan Tilt’s book The Struggle for Sustainability in Rural China explains the complications that rural villages face with the industrial expansion. He gives an example of a village Fuitian that is close to the river and has been affected by the dumping of waste water from the coal mines. The villagers say that because of the coal mine the river some times runs black. (pg. 88 Tilt) This is not an isolated case and is familiar to many villages along riverbanks throughout China. The factories and mines are double edge swords to these people. On one hand they provide a potential job opportunity yet at the same time the pollution contaminates their crops and also causes adverse health affects for many of them.
Cancer Belt
The Darker the shading is on the map the higher the cancer frequency. Higher poverty rates also correlated with higher the cancer rate in most cases (pg 5 Liu) The cancers that are most prevalent are digestive tract cancers like liver, stomach, colon, and cervical cancers (Liu pg. 8). These issues are ones that could be treated but remedial measure are too expensive and not a priority to the central government.
