Shangba

Shangba is a village of about 3,300 in Guangdong, China. It is an agricultural village, with rice and sugar cane being major crops. Recently, the village has come to be known as China's "Village of Death" [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6271103.stm] due to the extremely high incidence of cancer. In addition, the local river, the Hengshui River, known locally as "The Dead River," is which provides the only water to Shangba, has become so polluted that it is endangering the heath of those living nearby. [http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/blogs/paging.dr.gupta/2007/07/river-runs-red.html] One of the major pollutants in the river and well water is lead, which a provincial research institute reported as being present in the well water at some fifteen times what the national government sets as a maximum acceptable rate for drinking water [http://www.sprol.com/?p=371] . The presumed source of the pollution is the Dabaoshan Mine for zinc, once Asia's largest mine for this mineral. The village's crops are also highly contaminated [http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/10/23/pip.china.pollution/index.html] . [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0804/23/acd.02.html]

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