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Laurie Chen

The local government in Yancheng city in eastern China has decided to close down the ruined chemical plant where an explosion killed 78 people last month.
The March 21 blast at the site owned by the Jiangsu Tianjiayi Chemical Company was the deadliest industrial accident in China since the 2015 Tianjin port warehouse explosion that killed 173.
The decision follows a pledge by Jiangsu’s provincial government on Monday to slash the number of chemical production enterprises from 5,433 in 2017 to under 1,000 by 2022, as part of an ambitious plan to overhaul the local chemical manufacturing industry in the wake of the scandal.
Doing so will involve reducing the number of industrial estates that house chemical plants in the province from 50 to 20.
Three held over Chinese chemical plant blast that killed 78
The authorities in Yancheng said the plant was being closed to improve the living conditions of local villagers, whose houses, along with neighbouring factories, were reduced to rubble by the force of the blast.
The municipal government made the decision to shut the plant following a meeting with the city’s party chief Dai Yuan on Thursday, according to the Yancheng Evening News.




Around 3,000 factory workers and local residents were evacuated from the area as a result of the blast, which caused serious environmental damage.
Three nearby rivers were contaminated with dichloroethane and dichloromethane, two toxic chemicals, and the air was polluted by dangerous levels of nitrogen oxide, according to testing by the local environmental bureau shortly after the explosion.
More recent test results, published by the provincial environmental bureau on Thursday, showed that levels of pollutants in four nearby waterways remained unsafe.

The city government said it would “rectify and improve” all citywide industrial chemical facilities in line with provincial standards, and carry out further “critical” clean-up and disposal work to contain pollution at the blast site and in the surrounding area.
All other small chemical plants with poor safety records and high levels of pollution will also be closed down and “chemical-free zones” established in various regions, local officials said.
Jiangsu province has in recent years been a magnet for industrial chemical factories, drawn to the coastal area’s flat land and convenient transport links.
Death toll from China chemical plant blast rises to 78
It has massively benefited the local economy – industry revenues surpassed 2 trillion yuan (US$298 billion) in 2017 – but pollution of the waterways surrounding the Yangtze River from illegal sewage discharges has been a persistent problem.
“We must actively and steadily conduct improvement work, continue to treat the wounded, strive to do a good job in housing repairs, find new jobs for redundant factory workers, and maintain social order,” the Yancheng government said at the meeting.
The state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday that 187 blast victims remain in hospital.
Local police announced on Wednesday that they will press criminal charges against three unidentified Jiangsu Tianjiayi employees who allegedly had “major responsibility” for the incident.


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China society

Chinese city shuts down chemical plant after explosion that killed 78 people

(190322) -- XIANGSHUI, March 22, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Aerial photo taken on March 22, 2019 shows the site of an explosion at a chemical industrial park in Xiangshui County of Yancheng, east China's Jiangsu Province. Thousands of firefighters and medical workers and hundreds of ambulances and fire trucks have joined an all-out rescue after an explosion rocked a chemical plant Thursday in an industrial park in Xiangshui County. The blast has killed at least 47 people and injured hundreds of others, 90 of them seriously. (Xinhua/Ji Chunpeng)

The Yancheng chemical blast last month killed 78 people. Photo: Reuters

Three held over Chinese chemical plant blast that killed 78

Firefighters at work in the rubble of the chemical plant. Photo: Reuters

A woman walks at the site at the pesticide plant owned by Tianjiayi Chemical following an explosion, in Xiangshui county, Yancheng, Jiangsu province, China March 23, 2019. REUTERS/Aly Song

‘I knew it was a time bomb’: China chemical plant blast was not the first at industrial park

Yancheng mayor Cao Lubao at news conference. Photo: CCTV

A firefighter carries a man to safety on Saturday morning, 40 hours after the deadly blast at a chemical plant in eastern China. Photo: Weibo

Chinese chemical plant survivors relive horror of ‘earth-shattering’ blast

A resident walks through piles of glass from shattered windows near the site of the blast in Yancheng. Photo: Sidney Leng

Broken pieces and glass outside the hotel owned by Li Hongmei, who lives 5 km away from the plant. 22MAR19 SCMP/ Sidney Leng

A Christian church close to the factory had most of its side windows broken by the explosion. 22MAR19 SCMP/ Sidney Leng

Shattered glass outside the home of Ji Fengnian, a villager who lives close to the chemical plant. 22MAR19 SCMP/ Sidney Leng

News

China

People & Culture

Authorities in Yancheng city act after country’s deadliest industrial accident in four years
Decision follows action by Jiangsu provincial government to reduce number of chemical plants


Authorities in Yancheng city act after country’s deadliest industrial accident in four years. Move comes as provincial government pledges to overhaul local industry.


Safety in China

China chemical plant explosion

Chinese city shuts down chemical plant after explosion that killed 78 people

Authorities in Yancheng city act after country’s deadliest industrial accident in four years Decision follows action by Jiangsu provincial government to reduce number of chemical plants

Authorities in Yancheng city act after country’s deadliest industrial accident in four years

Decision follows action by Jiangsu provincial government to reduce number of chemical plants