BEIJING - China is promising change after the fatal mudslide triggered by the
collapse of a illegal waste reservoir in its northern Shanxi province last week
became the latest tragedy in its notoriously dangerous mining industry. With an
official death toll of 254 and climbing, and hundreds more displaced, the
government has ousted a string of Communist Party and government officials with
Governor Meng Xuenong, who resigned on Sunday, the latest casualty.
The catastrophe was just the latest man-made disaster to hit Shanxi, a poor
province rich in resources known as China's "coal capital". Famous for its
abundance of energy and metal resources, the province is also notorious for its
frequent mining accidents, which have been attributed to lax supervision by
provincial authorities and mine owners' blind quest for profit.
An initial investigation by authorities has found that heavy rains on September
8 swelled the reservoir's levels, disintegrating its retaining wall and sending
hundreds of tons of liquid iron-ore waste hurtling towards heavily-populated
downstream villages and their crowded marketplaces - among other factors the
unlicensed Tashan mine, operated by the Xinta Mining Company, was found to be
storing iron-ore waste in the reservoir to well beyond its capacity point.
"[I]nitial inquiries showed that factors leading to the accident include ...
building the pond holding waste-ore dregs in violation of regulations, [a] lack
of security checkups, failure to implement the order for cleaning up
operations, and loose supervision of relevant departments," reported Xinhua,
the state-run news agency.
State-run radio has announced that "several hundred", remain missing, and as
many of the victims were migrant workers from China's southwestern province it
is expected that many of their identities will never be established. A total of
1,047 people have been displaced by the mud-rock flow, said local authorities,
which estimated the total economic cost at 9.18 million yuan (US$1.34 million).
Acting with unprecedented swiftness, the government has already appointed a new
acting governor, Wang Jun, 56, and given him directorship of the State
Administration of Work Safety. "With expertise in work safety, the appointment
of Wang is expected to bring about real changes to the province which has been
plagued by work place disasters every year," said Wu Jiang, professor of
government administration and president of the Chinese Academy of Personnel
Science.
The speedy installation of Shanxi's new leadership indicates that the central
government wants to find enduring solutions for the mining industry, while the
removals of the governor and vice governor are designed to show the world
Beijing's tough new approach towards work safety problems in Shanxi, said Wu.
However, a Xiangfen resident told Xinhua: "The local government has been busy
changing officials after each accident, but nothing will change."
Beijing has imposed a series of laws and regulations in recent years in an
attempt to tackle a dismal track record on industrial accidents. But despite
the total work place death toll in 2007 falling 12.9% from the previous year,
the figure still stood at 98,340, which is still huge when compared with the
world average.
Legal and administrative experts have continuously pointed to lax law
enforcement as being the root cause of mining disasters in Shanxi province and
the nation as a whole. "The former work safety bureau director of Xiangfen ...
pointed out the danger of the mining waste dump to its owner, but no one
listened," Professor Wu said.
There are hopes that Wang will take on mine owners in Shanxi and turn the
resource-rich province into a less fatal place to live and work. "I have every
reason to believe that the new governor ... will find [a] way to make the
business community in Shanxi listen," Wu added.
More needs to be done than purging local party and government officials - party
and government officials' performance on the implementation of work safety
measures must be assessed before accidents take place, said Wu.
"The public should [also] receive work safety training and be mobilized to
supervise the implementation of safety rules," he said. "Provincial governors
and mayors are not enough to deal with social management and the market
economy, they should rely on the public ... Government transparency is not a
gift to the people. Its real purpose is for the government to get feedback from
the people," he said.
(Asia Pulse/Xinhua with editing by Asia Times Online.)
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