Locals fear Chinese officials more concerned with cover-up rather than clean-up after chemical spill
- Residents in Quanzhou in Fujian province complain that they have not been given the full story after a toxic chemical spill on Sunday
- Locals fear health risks are being downplayed after authorities said the clean-up was ‘basically complete’ on the day of the leak
Distrust of the authorities hangs heavy in the air in Quanzhou after the response to a toxic chemical spill last weekend left many residents wondering whether officials were more concerned about plugging information about the leak than tackling the problem.
Locals in the coastal city in the southeastern province of Fujian fear that the leak of the substance called C9 was more dangerous than they had been told, while complaining of a shoddy clean-up operation that has led to children becoming ill because they are being told to continue to go to school.
“Based on the very visible oil stains in the fish farms and nearby seawater, I think tens of tonnes of C9 were leaked,” Xiao Renhong, a resident of Xiaocuo village, said on Friday.
However, the local authorities in Quangang district said only seven tonnes of C9 had leaked when a connecting tube broke as the chemical was being transferred between the wharf and a vessel early on Sunday morning.
The first thing residents knew about it was when they were woken by a strong smell in the morning. But by Sunday evening the local environment protection bureau announced that the clean-up operation was “basically complete” and chemical levels in the affected area were within safe limits.
