Hou Zhangying, a 73-year-old woman in the village, has been diagnosed with tuberculosis. XIANG MINGCHAO / CHINA DAILY

Quality at issue

Although villagers point to the river as the cause of the cancer cases among them, the local government has insisted that the Qihe River isn't polluted.

Yang Jiandong, director of the monitoring station of the Linzhou environmental protection bureau, told China Daily that the bureau had thoroughly checked the water quality on April 10 immediately after the original news report was published.

"Sample tests showed the water quality in the river is better than Level 2, meaning that it's quite safe for drinking," Yang said.

The local government has been serious about protecting the river, and townships around the river are not allowed to develop heavy industry to avoid pollution, the official said.

The official explanation doesn't satisfy the villagers, though, many of whom believe the results of the sample tests were "concocted" by local government officials.

"If the river is not polluted, why do neighboring villages that get water from deep wells have lower rates of cancer?" asked Hou Zhangying, a 73-year-old woman in Dangjie, who has been diagnosed with tuberculosis.

Liang Dawei, an official of the Linzhou publicity department, said that cancer rates in the local villages have been above average since the 1950s.

To deal with the high cancer rate, the local government drilled many wells in the villages in the 1970s, which brought down the cancer rate from 180.89 cases per 100,000 people in 1970 to 82.8 cases in 2003, according to statistics from the Anyang disease prevention and control center.

The local government tried to drill two wells in Dangjie in 1987 and 1989, but hardly any water appeared, even at a depth of nearly 300 meters, according to a statement posted on the government's website on April 12.

The dry wells cost 128,400 yuan, exhausting the government's funds for this purpose and forcing a halt to the effort, said the statement.

Wang Baojiang, head of Dangjie village, told China Daily that the government planned to provide the village with 500,000 yuan to drill a new well, following the report in the China Economic Weekly.

"Geological conditions in the village are quite complex and it is difficult to find an accurate spot to drill well," said the village official. "The construction team has selected four candidate sites for the well."

Xiang Mingchao and Zhang Leilong contributed to this story.

Contact the writer at anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn