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China confronting environmental ticking time bomb

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Coal ash pollution [File photo]

Wang Sannyu knows all about the ticking time-bomb nature of environmental issues, with her home in north China's Shanxi Province collapsing due to phenomena caused by a nearby coal ash dump.

Under the glare of World Environment Day on June 5, China is facing up to how situations like this can result from long-term environmental degradation. Wang's and other similar horror stories show that the impact of polluting behavior can often go unfelt for long periods, but the chickens will come home to roost eventually.

Wang's house is the latest to be built in her village, although it has been there for seven years.

"Houses are collapsing. No villagers want to build new ones," says the 46-year-old while standing beside her home, with the roof of one room already caving in and cracks visible on the walls of other rooms.

"It is all because of the coal ash dam," she says. "The water spill from the dam has flooded our cellars and damaged the foundations of houses in the village."

Wang is referring to a controversial dam 500 meters away from her house. Covering 1.2 square km and known as the biggest coal ash dump in Asia, it is located on the outskirts of Shuozhou City in Shanxi, China's biggest coal production base.

Coal ash slurry containing mercury, lead and cadmium from local power plants has been stored here for three decades, and a dam was built around it. In some parts of the dam, the slurry has turned into dry ash dust. Even with a slight wind, ash chokes the sky.

"On windy days in winter, villagers talking face to face on the streets can not see each other," according to Wang.

This is one example of the environmental toll Chinese people are now beginning to face after three decades of fast development and lack of environmental awareness nationwide.

"The dam was there when I got married and moved to Shuimotou Village 23 years ago, but it did not affect our life until the past five to six years," explains Wang.

Ma Zhong, director of Renmin University's School of Environment and Natural Resources, says the problem with the ash dam in Shuozhou is typical in China. The pollution source may be there for many years before it rears its ugly head as a problem.

"The environment is resilient. The problem will not surface straight away," notes Ma.

But there has been marked deterioration in China's air, water and land quality lately. At the beginning of 2012, heavy smog blanketed more than 1 million square km of the country, affecting hundreds of millions of residents.

A land and resources ministry report showed that about 55 percent of the underground water supplies in Chinese cities were of "poor" or "extremely poor" quality in 2011.

And the recent food scandal involving cadmium-tainted rice in southern China highlighted worsening soil conditions.

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