RAdio Television Hong KOng has just released a very powerful series on the impact of China’s environment called China’s New Faces – Give Me Back the Natural Scenery:

Produced by Anita Tong, the filming took place in the area around Hangzhou and Nanyang, and if I could somehow require you to spend the 18 minutes to watch it, I would.

The synopsys:

Thirty years of reform and opening up brings to China as much
prosperity as pollution resulted from industrial development.
Industrial wastewater led to polluted river, allegedly the root cause
of the drastic rise of cancer cases in Wuli Village. Wai Dongying, a
barely educated villager, recorded the death cases one by one in her
“Diary of Death”.

Zhang Changjian, a bare-foot doctor in
Xiping, Fujian, witnessed the rising number of cancer patients in his
village. As the regional officials turn a blind eye to the crisis,
Zhang joined forces with more than 1,700 fellow villagers suing the
chemical factory in their neighbourhood. Winning the case, Zhang found
himself becoming a marked man…

The plight of the two “cancer
villages” reveals the harm to the Chinese people brought by water
pollution. China should have by now realised the price to pay for over
development and that “good” is more important than “fast”.

One of the things I think I will take away was how those affected would rather not see development and have a clean environment.  I have a strong feeling that this feeling will grow, and the economic issues that average citizens were willing to look past, will soon become issue they take up.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3: