VZCZCXRO5427
RR RUEHAST RUEHDH RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD RUEHSL RUEHTM
RUEHTRO
DE RUEHBJ #2121/01 2050932
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 240932Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5349
INFO RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF INTERIOR WASHDC 0759
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHDC
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 9924
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 0456
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 9942
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG 9584
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 1055
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI 7364

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 002121 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV TBIO PREL CH
SUBJECT:  LOCAL OFFICIALS IGNORE WATER POLLUTION PROBLEMS IN CANCER 
VILLAGES ALONG THE HUAI RIVER 
 
BEIJING 00002121  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) "Cancer villages" appear to be as commonplace as water 
pollution in China.  For local residents, it is not a question of 
whether cancer villages exist, but rather how badly cancer has 
afflicted the villages.  Although local and international 
journalists have reported periodically on the large number of cancer 
villages along the Huai River southeastern China, few scientific 
studies have been conducted to examine the magnitude of the problem. 
 Part of this is likely due to a lack of available and reliable 
data, but perhaps a more salient explanation is local governments' 
refusal to accept the findings.  Local NGOs, while growing in number 
and influence, still tread carefully when casting light on cancer 
villages.  Furthermore, central authorities more often than not fail 
to keep "bumpkin policies" in check, which allow local officials to 
ignore environmental enforcement in pursuit of financial gain.  END 
SUMMARY 
 
BACKGROUND 
---------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The Huai River is widely-considered to be China's most 
polluted river.  (NOTE:  The Huai River originates in Henan Province 
and flows west to east through southern Henan, northern Anhui, and 
northern Jiangsu Provinces, where it merges with the Yangtze River. 
END NOTE) According to Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) 
statistics (external reports usually indicate an even more dire 
reality), 70 percent of China's rivers and lakes are polluted to 
some extent, and 28 percent are too polluted even for irrigation or 
industrial use.  Approximately 90 percent of the water in Chinese 
cities is too polluted to drink without extensive treatment.  Water 
pollution has not only infiltrated surface waters, e.g., lakes, 
rivers, streams, and the ocean, but has also contaminated fresh 
groundwater resources.  In the Huai River, more than 75 percent of 
the water is of grade IV or V, which classifies it as unsuitable 
even for irrigation use. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) "Cancer villages" are located predominately in rural 
China, where inadequate treatment of industrial, municipal and 
agricultural wastewater causes local waterways to be severely 
contaminated.  Some remote or impoverished villages do not yet have 
effective water purification systems to make available water 
supplies clean and safe for drinking, but people still need and use 
whatever water is available in those locations.  According to a 
Ministry of Health (MOH) survey, cancer was the most lethal disease 
afflicting both urban and rural residents nationwide in 2006.  An 
internal 2004 World Bank internal project report by World Health 
Organization (WHO) research scientists PAN Xiaochuan and JIANG 
Jinhua concluded that there exists a significant positive 
correlation between levels of chemical oxygen demand (COD), 
fluorine, and chloride with incidence of stomach cancer among males 
in the Yangtze and Huai River basins.  Studies linking water quality 
and cancer remain extremely limited, however, and long-term impacts 
to local ecosystems and human health in China have been difficult to 
quantify.   The problem is compounded by the lack of data sharing 
between the health, water, and environmental authorities.  For 
example, although water quality is monitored by the Ministry of 
Water Resources (MWR) in more than 2000 river sections across main 
rivers in China, this data is not shared with the China Center for 
Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC). 
 
GRASSROOTS NGOS: ONLY ONE SHOT AT EFFECTING CHANGE 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) During a recent visit to the region in early-July, Beijing 
Embassy Science Fellow (ESF) learned that Qiugang village 
(population 2,300, in Bengbu County of Anhui Province) saw 53 deaths 
from cancer within 30 months.  Three chemical 
fertilizer-manufacturing plants were discharging effluent directly 
into the nearby Huai River.  Villagers who witnessed the water turn 
black saw rampant fish kills and dead animal corpses near the river. 
 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Green Anhui, an active local environmental NGO, worked 
with villagers to conduct basic water quality tests, and 
subsequently shared results with the Anhui Provincial Environmental 
Protection Bureau (EPB).  Although local environmental authorities 
initially were unresponsive to Green Anhui's findings, widespread 
domestic and international press coverage of conditions found in the 
village eventually pressured the Anhui EPB to order the closure of 
 
BEIJING 00002121  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
the three fertilizer plants.  By the time of Beijing ESF's visit to 
Qiugang in July 2009, two of the plants had indeed been closed down, 
but the third plant was still in operation.  Residents in the 
vicinity reported to Beijing ESF that the situation has improved in 
the last year.  However, the site of one of the defunct fertilizer 
plants is now home to a highly- active auto shop.  Large buses and 
trucks barrel down the narrow village road to the "small enterprise" 
that now generates and discharges automotive waste (e.g., 
antifreeze, motor oil, filters, car batteries, tires, radiators, 
transmission fluid, and gasoline) instead of waste from chemical 
fertilizer production. 
 
¶6. (SBU) While grassroots efforts proved effective in shutting down 
some heavy polluters operating in the village, Green Anhui Director 
ZHOU Xiang told Beijing ESF that future efforts by his NGO would 
focus more on raising environmental awareness among local residents, 
and not on seeking to strengthen treatment controls or prevent 
future waste discharge.  Zhou told Beijing ESF that the primary 
reason for this voluntary shift in the NGO's activities is a fear 
that if Anhui EPB is directly-challenged further, local government 
officials likely will take more definitive actions against the NGO's 
grassroots efforts.     Zhou also stated that he does not believe it 
to be realistic or economically-feasible to remove all polluting 
factories, so instead, he would prefer to "think of other ways to 
protect the environment." 
 
¶7.  (SBU) In a similar case up one of the Huai River's tributaries 
in Henan Province, the village of Huangmengying in Shenqiu County 
had 118 residents (of a total population of 2,400) die of cancer 
between 1994 and 2004.  Huangmengying village, located along the 
Shaying River, was exposed to severe water pollution in the early 
1990s, and as a result, the village saw a dramatic increase in the 
incidence of colitis (a chronic digestive disease characterized by 
inflammation of the colon), as well as of rectal and esophageal 
cancer.  According to Shenqiu County's scientific research center, 
the industrial pollution had contaminated the Shaying River and then 
seeped into the groundwater, which serves as the village's primary 
source of drinking water.  Mr. HUO Daishan, Director of Huai River 
Defender, a local environmental NGO based in Shenqiu County, 
gradually exposed the problem to international press through 
photographs taken over the past ten years and a series of monitoring 
stations, and was able to gather support for converting shallow, 
individual residential wells to a single 500 meter deep well, as 
well as centralized water purification systems, to provide the 
village (and others nearby) access to better quality drinking water. 
 But the success of this one case has not been repeated and Huo was 
told by local government officials to cease all future activities. 
Although both local NGOs Green Anhui and Huai River Defender were 
successful at improving the water quality of their target villages, 
both report their future activities will probably be restricted in 
the future. 
 
LOCAL GOVERNMENTS: ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH KEPT SECRET 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Local government officials have made efforts to keep these 
problems under wrap.  Due to recent local environmental NGO 
activities in Anhui and Henan, local EPBs have reportedly told 
residents and NGOs not to speak or interact with foreign visitors, 
press, and central government officials.  HUO Daishan (of Huai River 
Defender) would not agree to meet with Beijing ESF in person, for 
fear of "severe and dangerous" consequences imposed by the Henan 
EPB.  He asked Beijing ESF to first obtain approval from Henan EPB 
officials, citing that he has had trouble with officials before and 
has been instructed by them not to speak with "any international 
entities."  (NOTE: Huo's views and comments were otherwise shared 
with Beijing ESF.  END NOTE) 
 
¶9. (SBU) Similarly, ZHOU Xiang of Green Anhui told Beijing ESF that 
when national-level officials from MEP made an official site visit 
to Anhui recently, the local EPB instructed villagers to keep quiet 
and the factories to reduce operations.  Zhou said that the Anhui 
EPB controls all emissions data and does not share the information. 
Anhui EPB prefers to keep the data collected "baomi," or a secret, 
and there is no system for promoting transparency within the EPB, 
with efforts to request data difficult and time-consuming.  Another 
staff member from Green Anhui observed that local government 
officials can easily obfuscate reporting results submitted to the 
central government.    He added that any recent statements made by 
MEP officials claiming that the environmental situation in China is 
"not worsening, but is maintaining steady," are in his view "just 
 
BEIJING 00002121  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
lies put out by the government to assuage the people." 
 
SPARSE DATA, ONLY ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE FOR NOW 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶10.  (SBU) One of the most difficult problems has been the lack of 
data and transparency necessary to evaluate the true relationship 
between water pollution and high incidence of cancer in rural 
villages.  The central and local governments have been extremely 
sensitive about this subject, and there are few scientific studies 
on pollution and environmental health in China.  That said, limited 
research by China CDC has confirmed a link between high cancer 
incidences and water pollution in the Huai River.  Another 
epidemiology study of 300,000 cases in 2006-2007 examined the region 
surrounding the Huai River and found significantly higher mortality 
and morbidity rates compared with historical rates.  Although the 
central government in 2007 funded China CDC to investigate further 
the anecdotal water pollution and cancer incidence problems, one 
China CDC scientist told Beijing ESF that internal factions and lack 
of coordination among experts within the multiple disciplines 
involved have prevented China CDC from producing conclusive results. 
 Because cancer villages are a sensitive topic in China, local 
representatives have been reluctant to engage the international 
scientific community in collaborative research projects in this 
area.  However, additional collection, analysis, and publication of 
scientific data in internationally-recognized journals would be 
extremely valuable for clarifying the scope of the problem and in 
identifying possible solutions. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶11.  (SBU) In Anhui and Henan provinces, the problem of water 
pollution goes well beyond uncontrolled discharges from large 
industries, town and village enterprises, and municipal sources. 
Local residents living in and around the cancer villages understand 
the need for better air and water quality, but are not aware of the 
potentially irreversible environmental and health impacts from 
pervasive and persistent pollution sources.   Although the central 
government may announce new guidance or policies requiring local 
governments to reduce pollutant loads or require treatment controls, 
local officials still focus on regional needs that likely differ 
from national policy and may not investigate environmental health 
problems.  Without better management of the regional EPBs, it will 
be difficult for the central government to overcome the "inaction" 
at the local level, which remains the norm due to local officials 
who seem still primarily motivated by economic development and 
improving their region's GDP. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) The suppression of grassroots efforts to effect change on 
a small scale, coupled with rising environmental health hazards, may 
spur social discontent in China.  Lax enforcement of environmental 
regulations and the growing environmentally-related health crisis 
may further exacerbate an already disgruntled population's sense of 
official neglect.  Growing awareness of these public health risks 
and nearly 30 years of unchecked pollution have spurred small 
environmental NGOs and rural residents toward addressing their local 
problems.  Many poverty-stricken inhabitants of the Huai River 
region, however, still take the government at its word that it is 
working to address their water pollution and readily accept that a 
degraded environment still is an acceptable tradeoff for continued 
economic development.  END COMMENT 
 
GOLDBERG