【新唐人2011年5月23日訊】湘江的水源和豐富的礦產，本來是上蒼對湖南的眷顧，但如今兩者卻成了湖南耕地和當地居民生命的威脅。水稻產量冠居全中國的湖南省，現在好些地區農作物面臨絕收厄運。知情者指出，解決中國的污染問題，由於官商勾結，難度大。
被喻為湖南的「母親河」的湘江，長期以來，由於大量的採礦冶煉及沿岸工業的開發，大量工業污水和含有重金屬污水直排入江，導致湘江「重金屬污染」成為全國之最。湘水流到土地，污染的土地就種不出農作物了，宜章縣漿水鄉漿水村就是一個例子。
湖南郴州市宜章縣漿水村村民黃元勳：「他那礦井下水有攜帶金屬，況且水流到土地上呢，形成了這個板塊、硬化，那就種不了。種上去的莊稼也不好，或者是稀疏、枯黃死去。」
知情者透露，某個生産鐵礦的鄉村，採礦排出的水，毀壞耕地，跟政府反映卻反遭懲治，村裡有五六百人種不了田，只能在礦上幹活了。
趙姓村民：「污染也有，塌方也有，那老百姓去年也鬧過，政府抓過一次人，很多人被打，之後就不了了之了。大部分都是飲用水，本來水資源就缺乏嘛，一破壞就更加突出了。」
宜章縣赤石鄉一名曹姓村民告訴《希望之聲電臺》記者，當地同樣因爲採礦、污染不能耕種，由於官商勾結，問題得不到解決。
湖南郴州市宜章縣赤石鄉曹姓村民：「他們官方都有很大私利，尤其是我們區委一個政法委書記，他有幾個親戚都有很大的股份，他本身也有股份。所以他就盡力的維護它。」
湖南因爲重金屬污染傷害人命的事故不斷髮生。2004年，湖南長沙兩名中年村民死後檢測，證明體內的鎘含量嚴重超標。2006年，湘潭城區採集了500名喝湘江水的市民尿樣檢測顯示：30％的人尿液鎘超標，10％的人按國家職業病防治標準需要專業治療。2009年7月，因爲飲水和土地嚴重受到重金屬污染，瀏陽市有農民因鎘中毒死亡，引發了一千多名農民前往市政府門前示威。3
中共環保局工作人員說，湘江有些河段中的重金屬含量超過了國家標準的數百倍。環保部門在湘江之畔——株洲清水塘的蔬菜試樣中，發現了鎘含量超過了國家標準最高值的65倍，和汞，186倍；以及鉛，66倍。
被德國《世界報》譽爲「中國的唐吉珂德」的陳法慶，十多年來致力於中國環保問題。去年12月，陳法慶已經指出，中國整體環境污染越來越嚴重，主要根源是：官員和污染部門的勾結。他表示，現在許多官員本身是污染企業的負責人。
除了湖南，中國南方的江西、雲南、廣西等省份，部分地方也出現一些連片的重金屬沉積物分佈。而廣東珠三角多種重金屬超標，約有50%調查區的土壤中鉛含量水準明顯增高。專家說，重金屬一般可以殘留幾十年，例如鉛可以在農田上殘留100年。
據《新世紀週刊》報導，多位學者認為，未來中國農產品安全問題中，重金屬污染將取代農藥，成為最多事故的源頭。
新唐人記者吳惟、李璐綜合報導。
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.