The confirmed death toll from a disastrous landslide in Nayong
County, in southwest China's Guizhou
Province, reached 32 at 11:00 AM on Monday. Twelve others are
still missing.
After a preliminary investigation, Ministry
of Land and Resources officials said the accident was a natural
geological disaster.
"The mountain where the landslide occurred has been apart for a
long time," Jiang Jianjun, director of the Geological Environment
Department with the ministry, was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as
saying. "A landslide can easily occur on the mountain due to its
fragile geological structure."
But some local residents do not agree, according to a report
appearing in the Chengdu Business Daily, from southwest
China's Sichuan
Province. The newspaper said many believe the accident was
caused by coal mining in the area.
"Landslides will occur sooner or later because numerous coal
mines have made the mountain hollow," Wang Ping, a local shopkeeper
was quoted as saying. "Before the accident, several such landslides
had occurred with no casualties."
An anonymous official with the Guizhou Provincial Coal
Management Bureau was quoted as saying that mining should not
affect the likelihood of landslides.
Yang Guoshun, a commissioner with the State Administration of
Work Safety, told China Daily that local coal mines have
little impact on landslides.
"There is a long distance between the coal mines and where the
landslide occurred," he said on Sunday.
President Hu Jintao
and Premier Wen
Jiabao have indicated their concern about the accident and
urged local authorities to do all they can to rescue remaining
victims.
The tragedy occurred in Zuojiaying Village at about 3:40 AM
Friday when a mass of earth 500 meters long, 200 meters wide and
three meters high crashed down on the homes, according to an
earlier statement by Guo Yan, head of the Nayong County Civil
Affairs Bureau.
Three of the thirteen people who were rescued were critically
injured. The others were hospitalized in satisfactory condition or
released with only slight injuries.
Guo stated that work had been halted at the 20 mines in the
vicinity of the village until central government authorities made a
final determination as to the cause of the slide.
A total of 45 families that were affected by the landslide have
already moved to tents in safe places. Heating, water, food and
medicine have been provided to victims, sources said.
Nayong is a poverty-stricken county in Guizhou.
(China Daily, China.org.cn December 6, 2004)