A Month of Disasters

Posted on 22 August 2010.

China struggled to clean up after what was described as the country's worst oil spill. Some 1,500 tons of crude spilled into the Yellow Sea when two pipelines belonging to the state-owned China National Petroleum Corp. exploded at the Xingang oil terminal on 16th July.

According to the BBC, "An army of volunteers and fishermen has been mobilised to help clean up the pollution from the area around the port of Dalian, one of China's most important strategic oil reserves. But conditions are grim for those involved... Fishermen covered in oil, some of them working just in their underwear, scrape up the toxic sludge that spilled out of the jars they have brought back from the open sea. No one is wearing protective goggles, facemasks or even gloves to protect them from the hazardous chemicals in the oil."

Less than two weeks later, an explosion at a plastics factory in Nanjing killed at least 10 people and injured another 300. Investigators suspected that the rupture of a propylene pipeline, possibly caused by workers who were dismantling the factory, triggered the blast. The explosion collapsed nearby structures, shattered windows in the surrounding area and sent columns of acrid black smoke into the air. "I heard a loud bang that lasted for about one second," said a teacher at the Nanjing Technical College of Special Education, which is about a kilometer northwest of the factory. "As soon as I got outside the building, I saw most of the windows on the first floor were shattered." (Time)

Throughout July, the Chinese news was also full of reports of the devastating floods that spread across much of south, central and northeast China. Chinese authorities said that a total of 134 million people in 28 provinces have been affected by the severe weather. Hundreds had died in the worst floods in more than a decade. Thousands of tons of garbage washed down by the torrential rain threatened to jam the locks of the Three Gorges Dam, which was already under tremendous pressure from a huge water flow. Then to add to the disaster, Jilin province environmental authorities reported that the floods had swept some 7,000 barrels, many containing toxic industrial chemicals, into the Songhua River.

In early August, the disasters continued as landslides caused by torrential rains in north-western Gansu province led to at least another 1,100 deaths, with several hundred people still missing at the time of writing.

Pray into the situations mentioned in the text - the oil spill in Dalian; the factory explosion in Nanjing; and the devastating floods across much of China. Remember all those who have been affected by these disasters.

Pray for effective clean-up following any future incidents like the oil spill and escape of barrels of toxic chemicals into the Songhua River. Pray too that those working on the clean-ups would be given adequate protection.

Pray that lessons would be learnt from each of these incidents and as much as possible would be done to prevent such events from reoccurring.