June 23rd, 2006
Chinese Villages Poisoned by Toxins Battle for Justice
LEIFENG, CHINA – Zhang Guanghui, an 11-year-old orphan, rises from the kang, a heated brick bed that he shares with an older cousin. He scurries through his barren four-room concrete home, washing his face and hands, brushing his teeth, and preparing food.
At the center of all his actions is dirty water that he pumps from a well beneath the home. The untreated water was never purged of the toxins that almost certainly killed his mother, severely stunted his growth and left at least 500 people in this farming community of 1,00 families in northeast China ill and desperate. Still, he drinks the water – which develops an oily film just seconds after it’s pumped.
Read more at the Christian Science Monitor
