By M.E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
BEIJING, China – Reports and news generated almost immediately after China’s latest mining accident in Wangjialing mine, located in northern China, grossly wrote off the lives of those trapped. However, after more than 190 hours of continuous hard work and rescue efforts, the operation to save the trapped minders proved fruitful. Approximately 115 of the 153 miners trapped have been removed from the mine.
Photograph of rescue efforts at Wangjialing mine. Image courtesy of The New York Times.
News stories and captions read, that “from the start, China’s latest coal mine disaster likely to end as so many others: a failed rescue effort, grieving relatives, few if any survivors.” But, on Friday, 2 April, rescuers became hopeful after hearing faint tapping noises even after lost miners had been missing for five days. After hearing signs of life, about 3,000 rescuers worked nonstop to pump water out of the Wangjialing mine. Government officials who investigated the site announced that the mine flooded after workers dug tunnels and caused an old shaft to break and fill with water.
In an unofficial release of information, sources indicate that even days before the mine flooded, managers ignored water leaks that indicated trouble and danger. According to preliminary findings by the State Administration of Work Safety, miners had been ordered to step up the pace of construction to meet an October deadline to begin production at the mine, the agency said.
Survivors said they had strapped themselves to shaft walls with their belts to avoid drowning. Some claimed to have clung to the sides of the mine for days, and then when a mine cart floated by clung onto it for relief. Others said they ate bark from the pine pillars used to construct the mine. The rescue team’s chief medical officer told reporters that the survivors were weak, severely dehydrated, and suffering from hypothermia and skin infections. Some were in shock, though none were reported to be in critical condition.
Luo Lin, head of the State Administration of Work Safety, commented, “These trapped people have made it through eight days and eight nights — this is the miracle of life.” She went on to say that “[The] rescue plan has been effective. This is a miracle in China’s search and rescue history.”
Even though the Chinese government has managed to significantly reduce the death rate at coal mines since 2002, the country’s safety record still remains among the world’s worst. If rescue efforts at Wangjialing mine failed, this would have been China’s deadliest mining accident in more than two years.
For more information, please see:
People’s Daily – What survived from Wangjialing Mine disaster? – 7 April 2010
Today – Search continues for 31 still trapped in northern China coal mine – 7 April, 2010
New York Times – With Hope Dwindling, 115 Chinese Miners Are Saved – 7 April 2010
