Eighty-four experts from around the country were dispatched on
Wednesday to 45 major state-owned collieries to help curb the
number of gas-related accidents.
"These experts will conduct inspections from April 20 to July 20
in major coal mines that are prone to gas accidents," said Minister
Li Yizhong of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS) on
Wednesday.
They will diagnose any potential risks and improve prevention
measures while gathering ideas for future technological innovation
to reduce the number of accidents.
According to Zhang Tiegang of the Chinese Academy of
Engineering, who will lead a team to Jiangxi and Hubei provinces,
these teams will be looking for problems and hazards likely to
arise at the individual mines, rather than merely checking items
off a standard list as has been done in the past.
"Comprehensive methods are needed to deal with gas-related
problems, which require us to consolidate the technical
achievements we have made in the past," he said.
SAWS, the State Administration of Coal Mine Safety (SACMS), the
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry
of Science and Technology collaborated to set up the 11 teams. They
will visit the 45 collieries in 17 provinces, autonomous regions
and municipalities.
More than half of the pits are at risk of gas-related accidents,
said Zhao Tiechui, head of SACMS.
China's coal mines are among the world's deadliest, with
thousands of deaths each year blamed on the lack of required
equipment and indifference to safety standards. Even at state-owned
mines -- generally considered safer than small, independent
operations -- there is a safety investment shortfall of about 50
billion yuan (US$6 billion).
Driven by China's energy demands, the country doubled its coal
output in 2004 to 1.9 billion tons from 1 billion in 2001.
"Currently, 1.2 billion tons of coal in China is produced
safely, while 700 million tons is dug out in an unsafe
environment," said Zhao.
To reverse the situation, the government has allocated 3 billion
yuan (US$362.7 million) to upgrade safety this year and the NDRC in
February called on coal mines with a sound safety record to
allocate 15 yuan (US$1.80) from every ton of coal produced to
establish a safety fund.
There are nearly 2,000 large and medium-size state-owned
collieries operating in China and more than 23,000 small, private
operations. The latter, while supplying only about 30 percent of
coal output, account for some 70 percent of mining accidents.
(China Daily, China.org.cn April 21, 2005)