Coal miners don’t have that sinking feeling now
Print Edition
In the northern outskirts of Jixi City in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, retired coal miner Li Huancai bid a final farewell to his old home, a brick cottage with cracks all over the walls.
This year was one of the most memorable in the 68-year-old’s life. He moved into a new residential building for the first time in his life, along with 400,000 others whose lives were endangered by over-exploitation in the coal-producing city in China’s rust belt.
Dozens of suburban areas around Jixi are battling sinking ground — or subsidence — due to decades of mining activity.
As one of four pillar cities of the coal industry in Heilongjiang, Jixi has one-third of the province’s coal reserves. Back when it was prosperous, the coal industry contributed 80 percent of the city’s industrial output. Subsidence affects 353 square kilometers of Jixi.
Continued sinking caused only the window and top of Li’s cottage to be visible from afar. “When it rained heavily, the water level in my home could reach half a meter,” said Li.
The home also lacked sanitary facilities.
The local government started several rounds of relocation for the area in 2002, but 140,000 households, including 400,000 residents, were still living there by the end of 2014. Under the financial support of the central government, a new round of relocation began in 2015, aiming to move all the remaining households out of the high-risk area by the end of this year.
According to the government, property owners will be compensated with one apartment for each old house torn down. Favorable rental policies and shared ownership have also been rolled out to help low-income families. Li’s family moved into the new apartment at almost no expense.
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