Distraught relatives protested and demanded answers on Sunday, two days after a collapsed dike in eastern China flooded two coal mines, leaving 181 workers missing and feared dead.
State media said the breach in the dike in Shandong province early on Sunday had been closed and pipes and high-speed pumps installed, but gave no indication if there were any signs of life.
The Huayuan Mining Company mine flooded on Friday afternoon when the Wen River burst a dike, sending water pouring into a shaft and trapping 172 miners, Xinhua and state television said. Nine more miners were trapped when water poured into a nearby mine shaft. Both are nearly 600km south-east of Beijing.
Officials blocked access the mine, but upset family members could be seen arriving at the gates to a compound that appeared to house offices of the Huayuan company. At one gate, about 30 relatives and an equal number of bystanders yelled at guards and officials for information. Several relatives were roughed up and one man showed his torn shirt.
One woman whose husband is trapped, Ren Hua, said she was called on Friday and told there was no problem and that water was being pumped out of the mine. But when she arrived on Saturday with her 11-year-old son, she found the pumping had not started.
”We want to know how much work has been done and whether they are drawing off the water,” a crying Ren said.
Others also complained of a lack of information, saying no lists of possible trapped miners had been given out.
”No one has said anything about what is happening,” said Li Chuanmei, whose 42-year-old brother is missing. ”They have not said if there are any survivors. They are treating these people like they are sacrificial goods. You would think an official would come out to tell us what is going on, whether there are any signs of life, whether they are dead or live.”
‘Safety ideals’
Li and others gathered under a billboard explaining Huayuan’s ”safety ideals”. She said every year during the rainy season there is flooding in the mine, and officials did not seem to be prepared this year.
She said the trapped miners could be as far as 600m down the mine shaft.
One man who identified himself as an official but would not give his name said pumps were brought in from Hebei and Henan provinces and that pumping had started overnight.
Shao Linnan, who described himself as an ordinary miner, said he was waiting because friends were trapped. ”We sympathise with these families but there is nothing we can do,” he said, pointing at the groups of crying relatives.
Zhang Qingmei, who works for a mining-supply company, said he saw no rescue work being done when he dropped off plastic piping parts on Saturday, although that may have been because officials had to wait first for the dike breach to be closed.
Zhang, a member of the Communist Party whose brother-in-law is trapped, said: ”The officials say ‘safety first, production second’, but they haven’t followed those instructions.”
Mine history
According to a government website, the mine was previously called the Xinwen Mining Group Zhangzhuang Coal Mine, but underwent a reorganisation in March 2004 when it went bankrupt. The State Administration of Work Safety website said it had become a share-holding enterprise, but did not say who owned the shares or managed the mine.
Some of the relatives said the company’s financial troubles meant it had cut corners on safety.
It is common for China’s communist rulers to limit media coverage of accidents. The main state television news at noon on Sunday waited 14 minutes before giving only a 30-second report on the mine accident. Reporters for local Chinese media were ordered to leave in an effort to control the release of information.
According to the safety website, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao had ordered rescuers to ”promptly mobilise equipment and personnel resources available and take all necessary measures to rescue the trapped miners”.
China’s coal mines are the world’s deadliest, with thousands of fatalities a year in fires, floods and other disasters. Many are blamed on managers who disregard safety rules.
The government has promised for years to improve mine safety, but China depends on coal for most of its electric power, and the country’s economic boom has created voracious demand. Production has more than doubled since 2000.
China’s deadliest reported coal mine disaster since the 1949 communist revolution was an explosion that killed 214 miners on February 14 2005 in the Sunjiawan mine in Liaoning province.
Storms that swept through the region on Friday and Saturday dumped 232mm of rain, Xinhua said.
In a courtyard across from the main gate to the compound was a bright blue banner with red lettering that said: ”Hold high the banner of development. Build a harmonious mine and create a happy Huayuan.”
Harmonious society is the government’s catchphrase to describe efforts to help the hundreds of millions who have not benefited from China’s rapid economic growth. — Sapa-AP