【新唐人2011年5月23日讯】湘江的水源和丰富的矿产，本来是上苍对湖南的眷顾，但如今两者却成了湖南耕地和当地居民生命的威胁。水稻产量冠居全中国的湖南省，现在好些地区农作物面临绝收厄运。知情者指出，解决中国的污染问题，由于官商勾结，难度大。
被喻为湖南的“母亲河”的湘江，长期以来，由于大量的采矿冶炼及沿岸工业的开发，大量工业污水和含有重金属污水直排入江，导致湘江“重金属污染”成为全国之最。湘水流到土地，污染的土地就种不出农作物了，宜章县浆水乡浆水村就是一个例子。
湖南郴州市宜章县浆水村村民黄元勋：“他那矿井下水有携带金属，况且水流到土地上呢，形成了这个板块、硬化，那就种不了。种上去的庄稼也不好，或者是稀疏、枯黄死去。”
知情者透露，某个生产铁矿的乡村，采矿排出的水，毁坏耕地，跟政府反映却反遭惩治，村里有五六百人种不了田，只能在矿上干活了。
赵姓村民：“污染也有，塌方也有，那老百姓去年也闹过，政府抓过一次人，很多人被打，之后就不了了之了。大部分都是饮用水，本来水资源就缺乏嘛，一破坏就更加突出了。”
宜章县赤石乡一名曹姓村民告诉《希望之声电台》记者，当地同样因为采矿、污染不能耕种，由于官商勾结，问题得不到解决。
湖南郴州市宜章县赤石乡曹姓村民：“他们官方都有很大私利，尤其是我们区委一个政法委书记，他有几个亲戚都有很大的股份，他本身也有股份。所以他就尽力的维护它。”
湖南因为重金属污染伤害人命的事故不断发生。2004年，湖南长沙两名中年村民死后检测，证明体内的镉含量严重超标。2006年，湘潭城区采集了500名喝湘江水的市民尿样检测显示：30％的人尿液镉超标，10％的人按国家职业病防治标准需要专业治疗。2009年7月，因为饮水和土地严重受到重金属污染，浏阳市有农民因镉中毒死亡，引发了一千多名农民前往市政府门前示威。3
中共环保局工作人员说，湘江有些河段中的重金属含量超过了国家标准的数百倍。环保部门在湘江之畔——株洲清水塘的蔬菜试样中，发现了镉含量超过了国家标准最高值的65倍，和汞，186倍；以及铅，66倍。
被德国《世界报》誉为“中国的唐吉珂德”的陈法庆，十多年来致力于中国环保问题。去年12月，陈法庆已经指出，中国整体环境污染越来越严重，主要根源是：官员和污染部门的勾结。他表示，现在许多官员本身是污染企业的负责人。
除了湖南，中国南方的江西、云南、广西等省份，部分地方也出现一些连片的重金属沉积物分布。而广东珠三角多种重金属超标，约有50%调查区的土壤中铅含量水准明显增高。专家说，重金属一般可以残留几十年，例如铅可以在农田上残留100年。
据《新世纪周刊》报导，多位学者认为，未来中国农产品安全问题中，重金属污染将取代农药，成为最多事故的源头。
新唐人记者吴惟、李璐综合报导。
Heavy Metal Contaminates Hunan’s Crop Land
The life-giving waters and mineral deposits
of the Xiang River in Hunan Province,
were gifts from heaven. But now they threaten
the very lives and the land of the local residents, there..
Huge tracks of land in Hunan,
China’s largest rice producer province,
are fast becoming permanently unproductive lands,
as the result of various forms of pollution.
According to an insider, it’s difficult to solve
China’s pollution problem due to the collaboration
between officials and businesses.
Hunan’s “Mother River," it is now among China’s
most polluted bodies of water, due to the fact that
mining and industrial facilities continue to
illegally discharge their industrial waste
and heavy metal pollutants directly into the river.
Xiang’s water, in turn contaminates the surrounding
arable lands, making them permanently unproductive.
This is exactly the case in Jiangshui Village,
Jiangshui Town, in Yizhang County.
Huang Yuanxun, a resident of Jiangshui Village said:
“When the water beneath the mines,
which carries heavy metals, flows onto the land,
it"hardens" the soil making it unproductive.
Crops don’t grow well or they turn yellow and die."
According to an insider whose village produces
iron ore, water discharged from the mines
has destroyed the surrounding croplands.
Villagers were punished for appealing
to the government. About 500-600 villagers
are forced to work in the iron mines,
because their lands no longer yield any crops.
Mr. Zhao, a villager, said: “Residents protested last
year because of the various pollutions and the fact
that the mine collapsed, but instead of being happy
to address the villager’s complaints, government
personnel forcibly arrested and beat the villagers,
leaving the problem unsolved.
Since most water sources are mainly used for
drinking purposes, the water shortage we now face
makes our situation even worse."
Mr. Cao, from Chishi Town in Yizhang County,
told Sound of Hope Radio, that their village
has the same problem. The local mines have polluted
the town’s water supply, which in turn
ruined their land. Due to the collaboration between
officials and businesses,
this problem cannot be solved.
Mr. Cao said: “The local authorities reap huge profits,
especially the secretary of the district politics and law
committee. He and his relatives, who own the majority
of stock in the various local mine industries, are always
trying to protect the interests of their industries."
Accidents caused by heavy metal pollution happen
all the time in Hunan. In 2004, two middle-aged
villagers in Changsha City died due to high levels of
cadmium in their bodies. In 2006, a urine test of 500
residents who drank Xiang’s water in Xiangtan City
showed: 30 percent had excessive cadmium levels
in their body while 10 percent needed to receive
special medical treatment, according to
national occupational disease management standards.
In July 2009, due to presence of heavy metal in
the drinking water and the soil, some villagers
in Liuyang City died of cadmium poisoning.
Over 1,000 villagers protested
outside of the county municipal building.
Staff from China’s Environmental Protection Bureau
said that the heavy metal levels in some sections of
the Xiang River, is hundreds of times greater than
the national safety limit. In vegetable samples
obtained from Qingshuitang, in Zhuzhou City,
environmentalists found the level of cadmium to be
65 times higher than the national limit,
while mercury was 186 times, and lead was 66 times.
Chen Faqing, praised as “China’s Don Quijote" by
Germany’s Die Welt, has worked over 10 years’
in China’s environmental protection sector.
Last December, Chen pointed out that China’s
overall environment was getting increasingly polluted.
He also sited that the criminal collaboration
between officials and those businesses
that have grossly polluted the environment,
was the main reason. Many officials own
these same companies that pollute the environment
Besides Hunan, some areas in Jiangxi, Yunnan, and
Guangxi Province in Southern China, are also facing
heavy metal contamination. The soil in
Guangdong’s Pearl River Delta contains excessive
heavy metals and nearly 50 percent of
the studied areas contain toxic levels of lead.
Experts say that heavy metals such as lead,
can remain in the environment for several decades,
and in soil for 100 years.
According to New Century Weekly, many experts
believe that, in the future, heavy metals will overtake
farm chemicals as the number one pollutant and
greatest source of industrial accidents in China.
NTD reporters Wu Wei and Li Lu.
