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Shanxi sinking as mines riddle land
Honeycombs of underground mining tunnels have caused one-seventh of the land in Shanxi Province, which produces nearly one-third of the nation's coal, to subside. Almost 400,000 people have lost land, shelter or jobs as swathes of land have sunk into the earth after coal was removed from mines underneath. The provincial research team has found that more than 20,000 square kilometres of land in Shanxi, which has a land area equal to that of the Great Lakes area in North America, have caved in to various extents because of over-mining and bad practice. "The subsidence took place because we didn't fill the mine tunnels immediately after extracting coal, iron and other minerals," Li Lianji, senior researcher with the Shanxi Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, told China Daily yesterday. A typical subsidence disaster happened at Xindao Village, in the suburbs of Taiyuan, the provincial capital. The surface of the village has sunk by 3 metres during the previous five years and nearly all the villagers have moved out as nearly all the fields have become barren due to the subsidence. Crevasses and pits can easily be seen and cattle have also fallen in and died. Shanxi is not alone with regard to this problem. Subsidence caused by mining has occurred nationwide. Residents of Jiulong, a mining town in Huainan of Anhui Province, had to resettle when coalmining led to massive sinking in the area.
Li urged the government to take efficient measures to curb such subsidence and the environmental impact it causes. "It's a complicated issue because some farmers have lost land and workers
have lost jobs as a result of the ground underneath being hollowed out by
mining," said Li.
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