China's attempts to shut down illegal and unsafe coal mines have
met with mixed success, the nation's safety watchdog has
revealed.
Only around 40 percent of the pits on the government's 2005
closure list had stopped mining by the end of last year, according
to a document released by the National Development and Reform
Commission (NRDC).
In the document, labelled "especially urgent," the commission
called on local governments to strengthen their efforts in the
"closure campaign," and suggested punishing local officials who
failed to perform their duties.
The country had planned to shut down 5,001 unsafe coal mines
last year, but only 2,157 had been closed, said the commission,
China's highest economic planner.
The numbers, however, conflicted with those announced by the
State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) several days ago.
SAWS Vice-Minister Zhao Tiechui said 5,290 coal mines had been
closed down, and the government's 2005 goal of shutting down 4,000
had been met.
Announcing that 21 provinces, municipalities and autonomous
regions had completed the "demanding task" in 2005, Zhao praised
most provincial governments for their increased closure
efforts.
But in the document available on the NRDC website, the
commission criticized a majority of provincial governments for
their tardy reaction to the central government's decision and said
only a small fraction of provincial governments had met last year's
goal.
East China's Fujian Province was singled out for not shutting
down a single coal mine last year. The province had planned to
close 30 mines in 2005.
SAWS had praised central China's Henan Province for shutting
down more than 800 mines last year. However, the NRDC found that
only 155 inferior coal mines in the province have been closed.
North China's Shanxi Province, which accounts for nearly
one-third of China's coal output, planned to close 1,200 pits, but
only 276 had been shut down by the end of last month.
Industry insiders blamed local governments' unwillingness as
some governmental officials still back the mines.
In order to curb rising coal mine accidents in China, the
central government implemented a package of measures last year to
improve work safety.
Measures include preventing governmental officials from
investing in mining and shutting down coal mines that don't meet
national safety standards.
China has vowed to restructure the coal industry by establishing
large coal groups with better safety equipment, instead of
scattered small shafts with poor safety standards.
The administration said earlier that China would shut down more
than 12,000 inferior mines within three years.
A total of 5,986 miners were killed in 3,341 accidents in the
past 12 months, Li Yizhong, minister of SAWS said at a national
meeting recently.
"The number is less than that of 2004, but major fatal accidents
have aroused considerable public discontent," said Li.
There were four accidents which killed more than 100 miners last
year, meaning the total number of such large fatal accidents since
1949 reached 22.
(China Daily January 16, 2006)