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CHONGQING, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Though emergency
workers are yet to plug the leaking gas well close to his home, Xiong Shuzhou
feels perfectly safe at his temporary lodging 30 kilometers away from the
leakage site.
The 58-year-old Xiong from Gaowang village in Gaoqiao
town of Kaixian County, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, was among some
10,000 locals evacuated in the wake of a gas leakage at7:00 a.m. Saturday at
Luojia No. 2 well owned by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
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Rescue worker prepare for
the rescue operation at Luojia No. 2 Gas Well in Gaoqiao Town in Kaixian
County, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, on March 27, 2006.
(Photo: Xinhua) | "The
village head knocked on every door telling us to escape, and buses were waiting
to take us to the county seat," he said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua
Tuesday.
Xiong and at least his 800 other fellow villagers are
taking refuge at a conference hall in the county seat, waiting for the leakage
to be capped so they can return home. "We have porridge, buns and soy milk for
breakfast and several dishes for lunch and dinner. Each of us is given a new
cotton-padded quilt," he said.
For Xiong, this is the second time in 27 months to
survive a gas leakage. He still has dreaded memories of a deadly gas blowout at
Luojia No. 16H Gas Well on Dec. 23, 2003 that left 243 people dead and 2,142
others hospitalized.
"We didn't come to realize we should escape, till we
saw our livestock lay dying and many villagers flee to unknown destinations," he
recalled. "We ran to a neighboring village and spent nights outdoors keeping
ourselves warm around a little fire before we were given shelter at the village
school."
Huge casualties were reported in the 2003 gas blowout
partly because many villagers were not alerted and evacuated promptly, Xiong
said as he looked back to the tragedy.
Yang Jigui, a local folk of Shuangsheng village in
Gaoqiao Town, said he ran five km overnight carrying his two kids on his back,
not knowing whether they were safe havens.
"This time the government has stated clearly which
places are dangerous and which are perfect sanctuaries. There're also clinics to
treat emergency illnesses and provide basic medication. Officials are standing
by to deal with whatever problems that might arise. These have dispelled all our
worries," said Yang.
Following the 2003 gas blowout, Ma Fucai, former
general manager of CNPC, resigned and six people were jailed for delinquency of
duty, including the head, engineers and technicians of the ill-fated well.
The tragedy sped up the formation of an emergency
response framework that includes plans to cope more efficiently with publice
mergencies in all Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities.
It is ruled under the framework that in the advent of
an emergency, the public has to be informed at first time. Those who fail to do
so, try to cover up an emergency case or breach their duty in one way or another
will be penalized or prosecuted, it says.
The government of Kaixian county has closely followed
the rules to handle the current emergency, said Jiang Youyi, secretary of the
Kaixian county committee of the Communist Party of China. "Shortly after we were
told of the accident Saturday, we sent 80 buses to evacuate some 10,000
residents to five temporary lodging sites, with each equipped with canteens,
clinics and security guards to take care of the lodgers' needs."
On the same day, the government issued an emergency
notice to tell residents on the lower reaches of Gaoqiao River not to drink the
river water. It also said the government will keep the locals informed of the
results of its monitoring on air and water quality.
Emergency workers ignited escaping gas in time to
stem the leakage from escalating into a buildup or explosion. In the 2003
tragedy, however, sulfureted hydrogen 6,000 times higher than the normal kept
building up for 18 straight hours as escaping gas failed to ignite in time.
"We're quite safe and provided for, but we want to go
home soon," said Wang Tiancheng from Shuangsheng village, obviously worried that
the second plan to plug the leaking well scheduled for Tuesday has to be
postponed till Wednesday.
The emergency headquarters said geological conditions
around the leakage site are too complicated and a more detailed plan has to be
worked out. An earlier plan to seal off the well proved futile on Monday.
"We'll do our best to remedy the situation, and make
sure that no one gets injured or killed," said Zhou Mubing, vice mayor of
Chongqing.
Figures provided by the State Administration of Work
Safety (SAWS) indicate that mishaps are more prone between the fledgling and
fast-growing phases of the industrial economy and tend to decline once a
country's industrial economy becomes mature.
The fatality rate per 100,000 people tends to grow from five to30 when the per capita GDP is rising from a relatively low level to 10,000 U.S. dollars, the SAWS figures say. The fatality rate drops to 10 when the per-capita GDP tops the 10,000-dollar mark and back to five or lower when the per-capita GDP hits 25,000 U.S. dollars. Enditem
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