Vegetables are sick – Hunan Liuyang cadmium pollution
November 21st, 2009 by Key | Posted in News | 4 Comments »
(picture: A polluted eggplant)
[Southern Metropolis Daily] In July and August of this year, the Hunan Liuyang cadmium pollution incident caused nationwide concerns. It has been three to months since the incident, chemical plant was permanently closed, the relevant officials were suspended from their positions and affected farmers also received a certain amount of compensation. Recently the photographer went back to Liuyang, to some of the affected areas and shot a set of portraits for the crops. These terminally ill fruits and vegetables tell us the disaster has not yet ended.
Vegetables are sick – Hunan Liuyang cadmium pollution
By Southern Metropolis Daily reporter Fang Qianhua
July of this year my partner Yang Xiaohong and I went to Liuyang in Hunan province together to cover the incident of cadmium pollution. Centered at Xianghe chemical factory which was the source of the cadmium pollution, the fields within 1.5 kilo-meter radius were seriously polluted with cadmium.
At the time, the amount of the cadmium content in majority of the villagers’ body seriously exceeded the standard level. Some of them were very young babies. Apart from this, large tracts of contaminated farmland and crops were too horrible to look at. Those once familiar fruits and vegetables in the field became grotesque and disfigured beyond recognition, making people feel nausea and fearful when looking at them.
November of this year I once again returned back to the polluted areas to investigate and found many farmland were deserted, rarely seen crops. However after walked through many villages we could still see some remaining fruits and vegetables in the corners of the deserted fields. Because they were never cleared away, after a few months of pollution they have become more deformed, more shocking. In order to find crops suitable for the photo shoot, I went there 4 times to couple of the villages to look for those polluted vegetables. To me, these deformed and sick fruits and vegetables are like a group of special patients.
Photography: Fang Qianhua
Video: Qiao Yanjie
Tags: Art, cadmium pollution, Countryside, hunan, Photos, Pollution, Pollution in China
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The best way to get a message accross, is by touching the hearts of people… Yet in order to solve an environmental problem, we need to apply different sources of creativity and other skills of mindfullness.
I have some experience as a field worker in soil sanitation. As such I have encountered many different types of soil and water contamination. Not all pollutions are alike. Some are quite easy, others are tough to handle. Keep in mind this happens in all industrialized areas of the world. Yet these issues can only be resolved and controlled, if its urgency is acknowledged and the proper measures are established and accounted for.
Facts coming up. It’s probably a much larger area that has been affected. Soon farmers will plant there again (it’s money after all, so why care about poisoning the people they sell the crops to). I bet a great deal of the vegetables, crops and meat we eat here in China would never pass Western inspections. Pesticieds, hormones, antibiotics, all kinds of stuff. Actually I prefer not to think about it coz I doubt we can avoid it under the current conditions.
Good; facts is what we need. Meanwhile from the outside it looks like the Chinese people are very ambitious in one sense; yet much too passive in another. You simply cannot afford to wait until all these issues are properly regulated on a national scale. In my opinion the environmental policy should be multi-lateral, even universal, yet that does not exclude local communities from taking their own responsability. They need to stand up, and act – take matter in their own hands, even if this might go against their deeply rooted cultural impulses – because there will be nobody there in time to save them or their children. “To prefer not to think about it” is a common human reaction, when confronted with complex issues like these. Yet I’m afraid this will not do in this case. This is not merely a bad dream. The threat is real. There’s not much time left. Your house is on fire. If we let it happen, the consequences will cost us all dearly. So you have to wake up basically. Not next week. Not tomorrow. Right now….