Discovery of 16 bodies prompts canal safety calls A total of 16 dead bodies have been discovered in the Xianyang section of the Baoji Gorg...

Discovery of 16 bodies prompts canal safety calls

A total of 16 dead bodies have been discovered in the Xianyang section of the Baoji Gorge Irrigation Canal in just 20 days in NW China's Shaanxi Province. Photo: Xinhua

A total of 16 dead bodies have been discovered in the Xianyang section of the Baoji Gorge Irrigation Canal in just 20 days in NW China's Shaanxi Province.Photo: Xinhua

A total of 16 dead bodies have been discovered in the Xianyang section of the Baoji Gorge Irrigation Canal in just 20 days in NW China's Shaanxi Province.Photo: Xinhua

Local authorities in Shaanxi Province were urged yesterday to install safety facilities alongside the Baoji Gorge Irrigation Canal, after 16 dead bodies were discovered in the Xianyang section of the canal in just 20 days.

The call came amid public anger triggered by a local official's complaint about the high cost of building such facilities, although preliminary investigations by the police found that the deaths were likely the result of accidental falls.

The city government of Xianyang ordered local water resources management departments to improve infrastructure building and set up warning signs along the canal.

It required relevant departments to step up education of local residents, especially children, to increase their safety awareness.

The dead bodies were found between mid-March and mid-April.

The police have identified four of the 16 bodies and are still trying to contact the families of the deceased. Autopsies of some of the bodies so far have ruled out homicide as the cause of death, Chinese Business View reported, citing a police source.

A villager surnamed Wang, the aunt of Wang Qing, a 9-year-old girl who was found and identified during the search, told the Global Times that cases of missing persons are frequent along the canal but this year had seen a sharp increase.

"The canal section in our village is around eight to 10 meters wide and seven meters deep. It is very dangerous to walk near the canal as there are neither warning signs nor guardrails along its bank," Wang said.

"Local authorities have not done enough to improve safety along the canal, and some departments we turned to just passed the buck to others," she added.

The Baoji Gorge Irrigation Canal goes through 13 counties in Baoji and Xianyang, watering more than 1,100 square kilometers of farmland.

Its mainstream runs for 180.2 kilometers and was completed in 1971. Since then, it has become the most important water source for local farmers.

Zhang Yougong, a deputy chief of Baoji Gorge Irrigation Management Bureau, told Chinese Business View that the canal's banks were originally built for maintenance, but the rapid development of rural areas resulted in people using the banks as roads, which increased the risks of falling.

"It will take some 200 million yuan ($31.76 million) to build guardrails alongside the canal's mainstream and all its branches, which are more than 1,000 kilometers long combined. The cost is too much for our budget," Zhang said, adding that what they can do now is increase people's awareness of the risk.

Zhang's explanation did not win backing from many Internet users as they urged local authorities to put local people's safety above their government work.

By 5 pm yesterday, over 13,000 messages were posted on Sina Weibo discussing the gruesome discovery of the 16 bodies in just 20 days in the canal, and how the waterway, a lifeline for local farmers, had become a life-threatening factor.

According to a plan by the Xianyang government for key infrastructure projects, the city will invest 54.22 billion yuan in 150 major projects this year. The total investment for these projects is up to 318 billion yuan.

In addition to the Baoji Gorge Irrigation Canal case, there have been similar incidents around the country.

According to China National Radio (CNR), the 45-kilometer-long Luobei Canal in Luoning county, Henan Province, has taken more than 400 lives in the past 15 years.

The report said only five kilometers of the waterway have guardrails on its banks.

Bai Chiwei, chief of the county's administration of work safety, told the CNR that accidental falls are "inevitable" along such a long canal.

He blamed local people's lack of safety awareness for the deaths.

Separately, an irrigation canal belonging to a hydraulic power station in Jiangyou, Sichuan Province, has taken hundreds of lives in the past 20 years, and the power station and the local government hold each other responsible for the accidents and compensations, reported newssc.org, the major news portal of Sichuan.

"Local authorities need to put protecting locals' lives at the top of their agenda and stop using 'huge expenses' as an excuse for the lack of safety measures along the canal," Zhu Lijia, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Global Times.

"Civil awareness and respect for life have been gaining momentum among the people, and local authorities need to improve their governance to catch up with the trend, instead of offering simple denials for such cases," Zhu said.