From the Washington Post, in a story discussing a mine accident that killed forty, coming a day after a benzene spill poisoned a river that provide water for a city of four million:
A recent government report said that up to 70 percent of China’s rivers and lakes are dangerously polluted, and the air in several cities is some of the most polluted in the world.
Party officials have often sought to defend the government’s environmental record by arguing that China is too poor and unemployment too high to put the environment ahead of economic growth. But many residents rejected that argument.
"What good is economic development without water? Or without your health?" said Shi Huipin, 23, a phone company employee.
Kit Stolz 