China's top coal mine work safety official Monday vowed to work
rigorously to cut down on mining accidents, which have killed 329
people so far this month.
A
new nationwide investigation on safety in mines will be kicked off
immediately in the country's coal mines, Zhang Baoming, director of
the State Administration of Work Safety, told a national
teleconference.
"All coal mines, including small private and large State-owned
ones, which fail to meet safety requirements, will be asked to stop
work and improve safety measures or they will be shut down,'' the
director said.
Thanks to strict supervision measures, in the first quarter this
year, a total of 745 mining accidents and explosions reportedly
killed 1,182 workers, respectively 10.04 per cent and 2.31 per cent
less than the figures for the first quarter of 2001.
However, in the first 28 days of April, 329 miners lost their lives
in 125 mining accidents. In seven of the worst ones 114 people in
seven different provinces and regions, from Northeast China's
Heilongjiang Province to Southwest China's
Sichuan Province.
In
addition to the township private coal mines still keeping their bad
record in work safety, in April, State-owned coal mines also have
seen five severe mining accidents.
Since the coal price began to pick up a little, many coal mines
have rushed to resume production, which has resulted in the coal
supply exceeding demand and coal prices decreasing again recently,
Zhang added.
Last year, main State-owned coal mines produced more than 80
million tons of coal in excess of their production targets, and the
excess quantity for the first four months of this year reached 40
million tons.
The focus only on production in coal mines, especially small ones,
which usually pay attention only to profit and ignore efforts to
improve workplace safety and implement safety rules, is the main
cause of the excessive accident figures, officials noted.
Workplace safety, especially in coal mining, has become a major
responsibility for China's central government in recent years.
Last year, about 12,000 small coal mines that did not meet national
safety requirements, were brought up to standard or shut down.
From now on, new small coal mines will not be allowed to open in
China, Zhang said. The present 23,000 small mines are expected to
be reduced to 16,000 by the end of this year, Zhang added.
(China
Daily April 30, 2002)