(1) Floods in Southern China Claimed 56 Lives
[CND, 07/10/97] Severe flooding in southern China has claimed 56 lives.
The flooding in Guangdong Province has claimed 41 lives and an estimated
1.41 billion yuan (168 million dollars) economic loss, local officials
told Agence France Presse reporters on Tuesday. According to Yang Enrong,
vice secretary general of the Guangdong Red Cross, 2.3 million people have
been affected by the worst floods to hit the province in 20 years. Some
252 towns and 5,100 villages in the province have been damaged by the
floodwaters, 4,780 houses had collapsed and 20,000 were seriously damaged.
Torrential rainstorms sent swollen waters on the Beijiang river over the
weekend, resulted in 227 bridges collapsing. Most of the economic losses
were the result of lost production from nearly 200 factories that have
been forced to close down because of the floods. Affected cities include
Zhuhai, Maoming, Zhongshan, Meizhou and Qingyuan. Guangdong is China's
most prosperous province. (Weihe GUAN, Guochen WAN)
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(4) Beijing Residents Protest Against Garbage Dump
[CND, 07/10/97] Hundreds of residents in Beijing's northwestern Haidian
district staged a rare and daring protest against a nearby garbage dump,
according to a Reuters report on Wednesday. The protesters blocked the
road to the garbage dump with cars and bicycles and unfurled banners
demanding its closure. Residents in the Shangzhuang suburb say the dump
is polluting their air and groundwater and making local people ill. "When
the wind blows from the northwest it's really disgusting and makes us
throw up," a protester told reporters. A pregnant woman had been taken to
hospital for nausea and many children and the elderly had fallen ill
because of the smell, protesters said.
The 13.5-hectare dump came within 200 metres of the nearest residents in a
district housing some 40,000-50,000 people. It was opened in March and
had accumulated some 500,000 tonnes of trash so far. The residents say
they didn't know it was a dump during construction because the local
government told them that it was a prison being built there. A petition
was sent to the Haidian environmental authorities on June 2, demanding the
dump's closure. A month after, hearing no answer from the authorities,
the residents launched daily demonstrations. Over the past few days,
demonstrators had forced several garbage trucks to turn back from the dump
by lying across the road. Police had threatened to break up the protest
on Wednesday evening while an official at the Beijing Environmental
Protection Bureau said the authorities were now investigating the
situation and would work out a solution within a few days. (Weihe GUAN,
Ray ZHANG)