`Cancer villages' cry for help

Sitting in his spartan house in one of China's so-called cancer villages, a 77-year-old retired cadre sheds tears as he speaks of the pollution he believes is killing him.

"I just hope I can die sooner. I gave my life to the Communist Party yet I have nothing now, I have nothing to leave to my own children," he said.

The man, who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisals, was diagnosed with lung cancer several years ago, which he believes was caused by years of breathing in the chemical-filled air and drinking contaminated water.

He lives in Liukuaizhuang village which, along with neighboring Xiditou village in Tianjin municipality 120 kilometers southeast of Beijing, rose from poor areas into economic "successes" after scores of chemical factories moved in two decades ago.

But the industry that brought the villages wealth and employment also ended up destroying the environment.

Locals said more than 200 residents in the villages have been diagnosed with diseases such as bone, lung, liver and breast cancers, while a handful of children are suffering from leukemia.

The People's Daily, quoting Tianjin health authorities, said the rates of cancer in the villages are 1,313 and 2,032 per 100,000 people, way above the national average of 70.

It said high levels of bacteria, fluoride and cancer-causing hydroxybenzene that exceeded limits have been found in Liukuaizhuang's water.

Even after authorities ordered scores of factory closures and declared the water safe to drink, smaller factories continue to operate secretly as local officials turn a blind eye, villagers said.

Xu Kezhu, from the China Politics and Law University's Environmental Pollution Victim Support Center, said the group had been trying to help residents sue factories but none of the cases had been accepted by the courts.

Factory owners and wealthier residents have mostly moved out, but pain and death are never far away for those who stay. Liang Shuli, a Xiditou resident whose five-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia, said villagers had no choice but to suffer. "There is no way out for us, we are still drinking that water," Liang said.

Another resident from Xiditou, Li Baoqi, whose wife had recently been diagnosed with liver cancer, agreed.

"If you get the disease, you are just waiting to die," he said.

Reports of "cancer villages" have become increasingly frequent across China, a brutal legacy of the environmental and health woes that have accompanied the past 25 years of growth.

Xu said her center alone is dealing with 70 such cases.

In Liukuaizhuang, with unemployment high amid economy stagnation following the closures of the factories, locals are left to lament the false dawn that industrial reforms brought them.

"Before, you were poor but you had health. And health surely is the most precious thing," said a villager surnamed Lui.