Court rejects contaminated water appeal
Print Edition
A COURT in northwest China’s Gansu Province has upheld a rejection of compensation claims brought by five citizens over a tap water contamination scandal involving two companies.
The Intermediate People’s Court of Lanzhou City, Gansu’s capital, announced its decision on Friday after the five had appealed a ruling by a district court in November last year.
In its written verdict, the court said all citizens in Lanzhou had been affected by the pollution, so it was unfair to compensate certain individuals.
On April 11, 2014, the Lanzhou government warned residents not to drink tap water for 24 hours after it was found to contain benzene amounting to more than 10 times the national standard. The crisis affected more than 600,000 citizens and caused panic in the city.
Investigations found cracks in outdated ducts at a water plant owned by Lanzhou Veolia Water Co, a Chinese-French joint venture and the sole water supplier for urban Lanzhou.
Crude oil leaks from Lanzhou Petrochemical’s oil pipeline underneath the ducts polluted the soil and groundwater, which seeped through the cracks in and led to hazardous levels of benzene in the city’s tap water.
Twenty government officials in Lanzhou and staff at both companies were punished over the incident.
Nine citizens filed a lawsuit last November, demanding compensation of 60,000 yuan (US$9,166) for costs including bottled water and physical examinations.
The People’s Court of Chengguan District overruled the compensation claims. Unhappy with the verdict, five of the nine plaintiffs appealed.
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