Alessandro Digaetano Photographer

In Xiditou and Liukuaizhuang villages (in Tianjin municipality 120 kilometers southeast of Beijing) farmland was cleared in the late 1980s to make way for factories making raw materials for paint. But prosperity has come at a fearful cost. Dozens of local chemical factories (makers of toxins including sulfuric acid) disgorge wastewater directly into the Feng Chan river, which is black as ink and clotted with debris. Decades of such pollution have allowed industrial poisons to leach into groundwater, contaminating drinking supplies and leading to a rash of cancers. In these village the rate of cancer is more than 18 times the national average. Villagers have compiled a list of 261 people who have died in Xiditou and Liukuaizhuang since 1999. Last year the Tianjin municipal authorities ordered the closure of several polluting factories. Although media pressure finally forced the municipal government to close down offending factories in December 2005, villagers claim most of them have simply switched to nighttime operations. The Center for Legal Assistance to Pollution Victims (CLAPV) tried also to bring the factories to a trial to compensate the dead people. The supreme court refused it. *** Local Caption *** Under a bridge along the Feng Chan river.