Guangxi villagers seek government redress for suspected cadmium poisoning
Government continues to dodge mounting evidence of heavy metal contamination
For decades, villagers in a rural area of Guangxi have seen their rice saplings wilt shortly after planting and found soft bones a common ailment.
According to court records and interviews, local residents strongly suspect that the source of the malaise in Sanhe village is cadmium poisoning.
Since the mid-1950s, a state-run company has mined lead and zinc in the area and there is evidence that the local water source has been polluted by waste from the mine.
Like other fast industrialising countries, China faces a host of environmental problems stemming from the release of heavy metals and other waste.
According to an official soil quality report issued last April, 16 per cent of soil samples taken from 6.3 million square kilometres of land surveyed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and other government agencies showed contamination above state-designated limits.
The report cited cadmium, nickel, arsenic and mercury as major sources of contamination in the country today.
Sanhe, the site of lead and zinc mining, is home to about 800 people, of whom about 80 per cent suffered from back pain and other ailments, residents said.