Coal Mine Accidents Continue to Haunt China

Coal mine accidents continue to haunt China as at least forty-four people were killed in five separate accidents in its coal mines over the weekend. Experts say China's coal mining safety issues will eventually be addressed in the long run.

Chen Zhe has more.

A total of twenty-eight people died on Saturday after an electric cable caught fire inside the Xiaonangou mine in Shaanxi Province, while another accident in Henan killed eight miners.

On Sunday, four others were killed in coal mines in Hunan and Gansu, and four people died and 13 were injured in an explosion at a coal mine in northeast China's Liaoning Province.

The State Administration of Work Safety Spokesman Huang Yi says investigations are underway.

"Most of the coal mines are small mines to be merged and consolidated. Some of them operated illegally and some failed to follow safety rules. Everything is under investigation."

As part of the efforts to increase safety standards, the country has already begun shutting down operations at mines with annual production under 300,000 tons.

It plans to close 8,000 small mines by the end of this year, and has started merging and consolidation in order to improve production efficiency and reduce accidents.

According to official figures, more than 2,600 coal miners died in 1,616 mine accidents in the country in 2009, down 18 percent from the previous year.
Huang Yi again.

"The government has made a lot of effort to curb the situation and achieved some success.
However, the general condition of China's coal mines is poor. Private and small mines account for over 90 percent of China's coal mines. They are usually backward in safety equipment and poor in management. The high profits have lured them to produce more coal at the expense of safety, and some even operate illegally."

Earlier, the government urged coal mine managers to accompany their miners into the mines in an effort to increase their awareness of safety. Huang Yi says the rule hasn't been followed effectively so far.

Luo Yun, an expert on safety engineering with China University of Geosciences, says the country must establish a systematic and scientific approach to solving the problem.

"It's important that the government issues laws and regulations to supervise them. It also has to improve people's safety awareness and upgrade the equipment and safety monitoring system in coal mines. Standardizing industry operations and building an emergency system are also important."

The professor adds that China is on the right track but it will take time to solve the problem.

For CRI, I'm Chen Zhe.