Daqing (AsiaNews) – Since the mid-1990s, a strong ammonia odour has permeated homes in Daqing village, Heilongjiang province, north eastern China and has not abandoned it since.  It comes from a petrol-chemical plant built on the outskirts of the village, which has caused the death of many villagers since its inauguration.  This is just one of the hundreds of “cancer villages”, isolated rural settlements which have been forcibly submitted to the country’s great economic boom and who are paying for it with their lives.

In December last year, Pan Yue, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, said, "Every year, about 2 million people die of cancer. Of those, 70 percent are related to environmental pollution”. According to the Ministry of Health, cancer accounts for 27 percent of the causes of death in urban areas and 73 percent in rural ones. This data however, presented to the local governments where not considered to be “a justifiable reason to relocate or close down the industries”.

Village resident Wang Yajie, 42, told the Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun: “At night, we are enveloped by such a strong smell that we cannot open the windows. Last night, I spent another sleepless night because of the smell”. The factory expels its smoke and odour, which permeates the houses and waterways of the village, which counts 250 inhabitants.  According to a report released by the Health Ministry, the numbers of villages who are feeling the effects of industrial waste at a medical level are on the increase.

Another villager, Wang Qiuli, 34, remembers when his father came home from work “holding his head in his hands. He was coughing heavily and complaining of nausea. He was confined to his bed that night and died a year later”. Wang later learned that an “accident” took place at the factory, but he never received any form of compensation.

Since the late ’90’s, 10 people have died of cancer while a further 21 have been hospitalised for respiratory problems in this small village. Cai Wenxiang, 70 says: “Those who had enough money to move out of here have all left this village. Only poor people remain here”. Villagers keep on submitting petitions to the local government or other authorities, asking them to suspend the factory's operations or to relocate the villagers. They have never received any reply.

The village of Hongweicunerdun near Duliduntiedaoyiqu is also facing a similar problem. Of about 1,000 residents, more than 30 people have suffered from cancer, and more than 10 babies were born with disabilities. The factory which is destroying their lives however only began operations in 2004.  Following the example of their neighbours they asked the local Court of Justice to find a solution However, the court turned down the suit on grounds of “insufficient evidence”.

Xing Fengshan, 55, says: “White powder sometimes falls like snow here, covering the ground all over. Is this something we need to prove with evidence?”. Although the health problems apparently result from pollutants discharged from factories, the local government refuses to recognize “the cause-and-effect relationship”.