China's Water Crisis Displays Party Power, Secrecy
Date: 28-Nov-05
Country: CHINA
Author: Chris Buckley
On Sunday the toxic chemical spill on the Songhua river that threatened water supplies passed beyond the northeastern city of 9 million, and piped water was due to be restored within the day.
"People have seen the government's ability and decisiveness in dealing with the water shutdown, and the rapid victory has created confidence in the government," commented the official Xinhua news agency.
Indeed, over the past week, Harbin reverted to traditional Communist mobilisation of thousands of party members, officials and soldiers to ensure the city's water shutdown did not spark wider social unrest.
About 300 teams of officials were organised to manage queues of residents waiting at trucks distributing free water, and over 1,000 troops installed new charcoal filters to purify the city's water. Now the city faces a glut of bottled water.
But if the city's ordeal demonstrated the Party's continued organisational muscle, it also laid bare Chinese officials' habitual reluctance to share information with citizens.
At a time when China faces major health threats such as bird flu and AIDS, this habitual secretiveness can worsen the very crises the Party aims to solve, said Mao Shoulong, a public policy expert at the People's University of China in Beijing.
"China still has powerful organisational resources, and they can be mobilised to cope with crises, but they can also become an obstacle to communication and coordination," he said.
After a chemical plant in nearby Jilin exploded on Nov.13, officials there hid the fact that 100 tonnes of benzene had washed into the nearby Songhua river. They hoped the poisons would dilute before doing major damage, said Mao, the academic.
Two Harbin businessmen who deal regularly with senior officials there said Jilin told Harbin about the impending problem on Nov. 18. and pressured the city to deal quietly with the spill.
"Jilin went directly to Harbin, not to the provincial or central government, because it hoped to deal with this secretly," said one of the businessmen, who requested anonymity.
"WARNING BELL"
Last Monday, Harbin officials notified citizens that the city's taps would be shut off for maintenance, but word of the chemical spill soon spread amid rising panic as residents scrambled to buy bottled water or leave the city.
This prompted officials to decide to reveal the true reason for the shutdown on Tuesday.
Some residents even said the government deliberately stoked rumours of an imminent earthquake as a cover for the water crisis.
Li Yizhong, a central government official sent to conduct an enquiry, said on Saturday that Jilin officials found responsible for the spill and apparent cover-up may be prosecuted.
Even Chinese newspapers chided the government for hiding the truth from citizens. And Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao urged officials to be truthful in the face of crisis.
Chinese environmental campaigners said the widely reported drama of a major city kept thirsty and unwashed by pollution may spur greater official candour about pollution.
"China is becoming more open with information, but it's a process," said Wang Yongchen, a Beijing-based environmental campaigner. "This was a warning bell for China."
But officials also sought to draw another lesson from the crisis: that China's 70-million strong Communist Party remains a vital guarantor of people's needs in times of need. "The people's servants and the public are intertwined like rope, and residents and the government have drawn close," Xinhua said.
Mao, the academic, said Harbin's experience highlighted the limits of the Party's "mobilising" approach to crisis.
"Officials still don't grasp how powerful public opinion has become -- powerful enough that secrecy just won't work any longer," he said.