{"id":171097,"date":"2014-04-04T20:02:06","date_gmt":"2014-04-05T03:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=171097"},"modified":"2014-04-04T20:02:06","modified_gmt":"2014-04-05T03:02:06","slug":"chinas-poisonous-waterways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/","title":{"rendered":"China’s Poisonous Waterways"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writer Sheng Keyi<\/a> reflects on her return trips home to\u00a0the once “sweet and sparkling” but now “lifeless toxic expanse” that marks the factory-lined Lanxi River in Hunan Province<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0From The New York Times:<\/p>\n

\n

Over the past few years, trips back to my home village, Huaihua Di, on the Lanxi River in Hunan Province, have been clouded by news of deaths \u2014 deaths of people I knew well. Some were still young, only in their 30s or 40s. When I returned to the village early last year, two people had just died, and a few others were dying.<\/p>\n

My father conducted an informal survey last year of deaths in our village, which has about 1,000 people, to learn why they died and the ages of the deceased. After visiting every household over the course of two weeks, he and two village elders came up with these numbers: Over 10 years, there were 86 cases of cancer. Of these, 65 resulted in death; the rest are terminally ill. Most of their cancers are of the digestive system. In addition, there were 261 cases of snail fever, a parasitic disease, that led to two deaths.<\/p>\n

[…] I know the illness does not just affect my village and my river. The entire country is sick, and cancer has spread to every organ of this nation. In our society, profit and G.D.P. count more than anything else. A glittering facade is the new face of China. Behind it, well-off people emigrate, people in power send their families to countries with clean water, while they themselves consume quality food and clean water through the networks that serve the privileged. Yet many ordinary people still refuse to wake up, as if they were busy digging at the soil beneath their own feet while standing on a precipice. [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more about cancer villages<\/a> and\u00a0water pollution in China via CDT<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writer Sheng Keyi reflects on her return trips home to\u00a0the once “sweet and sparkling” but now “lifeless toxic expanse” that marks the factory-lined Lanxi River in Hunan Province. \u00a0From The New York Times: Over the past few years, trips back to my home village, Huaihua Di, on the Lanxi River in Hunan Province, have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":171101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[132,14744,14745,14746,5],"tags":[2834,4335,5958,1203,5326,174,969,872],"class_list":["post-171097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-crisis","category-level-2-article","category-level-3-article","category-level-4-article","category-society","tag-cancer","tag-cancer-village","tag-hunan","tag-inequality","tag-society-inequality","tag-water","tag-water-pollution","tag-waterways","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nChina's Poisonous Waterways<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"China's Poisonous Waterways\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Writer Sheng Keyi reflects on her return trips home to\u00a0the once “sweet and sparkling” but now “lifeless toxic expanse” that marks the factory-lined Lanxi River in Hunan Province. \u00a0From The New York Times: Over the past few years, trips back to my home village, Huaihua Di, on the Lanxi River in Hunan Province, have been […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"China Digital Times (CDT)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-04-05T03:02:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/waterway.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"456\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Natalie Ornell\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@cdt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Natalie Ornell\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Natalie Ornell\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/cf027b90455e81f6db9dc9cbc96bf9dd\"},\"headline\":\"China’s Poisonous Waterways\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-05T03:02:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-05T03:02:06+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/\"},\"wordCount\":312,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/waterway.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"cancer\",\"cancer village\",\"Hunan\",\"inequality\",\"society inequality\",\"water\",\"water pollution\",\"waterways\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Environment\",\"Level 2 Article\",\"Level 3 Article\",\"Level 4 Article\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/\",\"name\":\"China's Poisonous Waterways\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/waterway.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-05T03:02:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-04-05T03:02:06+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/waterway.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/waterway.jpg\",\"width\":675,\"height\":456},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"China’s Poisonous Waterways\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\",\"name\":\"China Digital Times (CDT)\",\"description\":\"Covering China from Cyberspace\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization\",\"name\":\"China Digital Times\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg\",\"width\":186,\"height\":177,\"caption\":\"China Digital Times\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/cdt\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/cf027b90455e81f6db9dc9cbc96bf9dd\",\"name\":\"Natalie Ornell\",\"description\":\"Natalie Ornell is a Master's student in Asian Studies at UC Berkeley. She completed her undergraduate degree in East Asian Studies and English at Wellesley College. At Wellesley, she freelanced for an immigrant-focused newspaper in Boston's Chinatown, the Sampan, and also interned as a reporter at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. She currently serves as an Ambassador for the television program, LinkAsia, in San Francisco. You can read her blog on Asia-related events at UC Berkeley by visiting http:\/\/asiaberkeley.tumblr.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/author\/nornell\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"China's Poisonous Waterways","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"China's Poisonous Waterways","og_description":"Writer Sheng Keyi reflects on her return trips home to\u00a0the once “sweet and sparkling” but now “lifeless toxic expanse” that marks the factory-lined Lanxi River in Hunan Province. \u00a0From The New York Times: Over the past few years, trips back to my home village, Huaihua Di, on the Lanxi River in Hunan Province, have been […]","og_url":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/","og_site_name":"China Digital Times (CDT)","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes","article_published_time":"2014-04-05T03:02:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":675,"height":456,"url":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/waterway.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Natalie Ornell","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cdt","twitter_site":"@cdt","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Natalie Ornell","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/"},"author":{"name":"Natalie Ornell","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/cf027b90455e81f6db9dc9cbc96bf9dd"},"headline":"China’s Poisonous Waterways","datePublished":"2014-04-05T03:02:06+00:00","dateModified":"2014-04-05T03:02:06+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/"},"wordCount":312,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/waterway.jpg","keywords":["cancer","cancer village","Hunan","inequality","society inequality","water","water pollution","waterways"],"articleSection":["Environment","Level 2 Article","Level 3 Article","Level 4 Article","Society"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/","url":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/","name":"China's Poisonous Waterways","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/waterway.jpg","datePublished":"2014-04-05T03:02:06+00:00","dateModified":"2014-04-05T03:02:06+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/waterway.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/waterway.jpg","width":675,"height":456},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2014\/04\/chinas-poisonous-waterways\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"China’s Poisonous Waterways"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#website","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/","name":"China Digital Times (CDT)","description":"Covering China from Cyberspace","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#organization","name":"China Digital Times","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/CDT-logo.jpg","width":186,"height":177,"caption":"China Digital Times"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ChinaDigitalTimes","https:\/\/x.com\/cdt"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/#\/schema\/person\/cf027b90455e81f6db9dc9cbc96bf9dd","name":"Natalie Ornell","description":"Natalie Ornell is a Master's student in Asian Studies at UC Berkeley. She completed her undergraduate degree in East Asian Studies and English at Wellesley College. At Wellesley, she freelanced for an immigrant-focused newspaper in Boston's Chinatown, the Sampan, and also interned as a reporter at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. She currently serves as an Ambassador for the television program, LinkAsia, in San Francisco. You can read her blog on Asia-related events at UC Berkeley by visiting http:\/\/asiaberkeley.tumblr.com.","url":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/author\/nornell\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1022"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}