Migrant workers, rural residents paying the price for a cleaner future

Yan Laishun's surname means hope for a smooth and lucky life. And the bicycle repairer and his family could do with some luck after a nearby steel mill closed last year.

His two daughters and son lost their jobs. The family hasn't recouped the 120,000 yuan (HK$152,000) it contributed to the plant, nor has his son been paid four months' wages. And neither he nor the other Shuihou villagers know when they will recover the farm land the plant grabbed when it expanded.

Production at the private plant run by Xingye Industrial and Trade stopped last November when the Tangshan government razed its major blast furnace. The city also destroyed other small steel plants deemed major polluters after Beijing demanded that industry become greener and more efficient.

"The factory was too polluting and its equipment outdated. The closure was understandable," Yan says. But he's worried about his family's future.

He's not alone. An old man selling sausages and bread at an entrance to the village says that the migrant labourers who came to work at the plant had left for other job opportunities. "They have all gone," he said.

Migrant workers and rural residents like Yan are bearing the brunt of Beijing's policy to close polluting factories nationwide, an endeavour that will take years.

The government is demanding local cadres pay attention to the environment instead of just chasing growth targets.