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Bridge plan follows ferry sinking in which 12 died
By Wang Qingchu and Dong Zhen |
September 14, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A bridge is to be built across a river in central China's Hunan Province where a ferry sank, claiming at least 12 lives.
Hunan will spend 14 million yuan (US$2.2 million) building a bridge over Fuyi River in Shaoyang County after 12 people, including eight children, died and 20 were injured when a ferry sank last Friday, according to Xinhua news agency.
Local residents said the river was prone to accidents, and they had urged the government to build a bridge.
In the latest accident, the ferry sank after its propellers became tangled with iron cables used by sand dredgers, local officials said. The boat, designed to carry 14 people at most, was loaded with 50, mostly students from two primary and middle schools heading home for the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival.
Angry villagers and the media are questioning local government reaction to the sinking. Some media said officials had underreported the number of passengers. There was also suspicion about a sudden increase of water level on the river after the sinking that submerged the boat.
Some villagers believe water was deliberately flushed from upstream to destroy the accident site, preventing the public from knowing the true death toll and masking the local government's collusion with unsafe sand-dredging.
The West China Metropolis Daily quoted some villagers as saying they believed authorities deliberately "flushed" water into the river to cover up evidence of illegal sand-dredging and also to disperse victims' relatives gathering on the bank.
Illegal sand-dredging is understood to be a continuing problem, one with environmental consequences. The local government is suspected of having submerged the site to mask evidence of illegal dredging.
A Shaoyang County official denied the rise in water level was deliberate, claiming it was the result of an upstream power station opening its water gate.
But the official's statement stirred anger further as people asked how such an action could be approved while rescue work was in progress downstream.
Families of all victims had signed a compensation agreement with the local government by Monday in which compensation was set at 200,000 yuan for each family.
Hunan will spend 14 million yuan (US$2.2 million) building a bridge over Fuyi River in Shaoyang County after 12 people, including eight children, died and 20 were injured when a ferry sank last Friday, according to Xinhua news agency.
Local residents said the river was prone to accidents, and they had urged the government to build a bridge.
In the latest accident, the ferry sank after its propellers became tangled with iron cables used by sand dredgers, local officials said. The boat, designed to carry 14 people at most, was loaded with 50, mostly students from two primary and middle schools heading home for the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival.
Angry villagers and the media are questioning local government reaction to the sinking. Some media said officials had underreported the number of passengers. There was also suspicion about a sudden increase of water level on the river after the sinking that submerged the boat.
Some villagers believe water was deliberately flushed from upstream to destroy the accident site, preventing the public from knowing the true death toll and masking the local government's collusion with unsafe sand-dredging.
The West China Metropolis Daily quoted some villagers as saying they believed authorities deliberately "flushed" water into the river to cover up evidence of illegal sand-dredging and also to disperse victims' relatives gathering on the bank.
Illegal sand-dredging is understood to be a continuing problem, one with environmental consequences. The local government is suspected of having submerged the site to mask evidence of illegal dredging.
A Shaoyang County official denied the rise in water level was deliberate, claiming it was the result of an upstream power station opening its water gate.
But the official's statement stirred anger further as people asked how such an action could be approved while rescue work was in progress downstream.
Families of all victims had signed a compensation agreement with the local government by Monday in which compensation was set at 200,000 yuan for each family.
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