The hidden dangers of China’s construction sites

It is well known that China’s construction sites are dangerous places; workers are all too often crushed by falling building materials and scaffolding, maimed by faulty machinery or fall to their deaths from heights. Indeed, just last month, eight workers died after a load collapsed at a construction site in Jiangsu.

But on a recent trip to Beijing, I was alerted to a new danger, one that I had not even considered before – underground water. The Beijing News (新京报) reported on 10 July that at least 53 workers at a construction site in Tongzhou district had been hospitalized after drinking contaminated well water on site. In total, more than 80 workers were affected, although most recovered within 24 hours.

One worker told the newspaper; “after drinking the site water, I had to go to the toilet three or four times during the night. The water smelled bad, it really assailed the nostrils.”

I later learnt that it was common practice for contractors to sink a bore hole on site as a source of drinking water for their workers. Given the level of ground water pollution in China – this really is asking for trouble. But clearly, using well water is the easiest and cheapest option for the site contractors, and so that is why they do it.

Not only that, the construction site canteen will use the cheapest oil, rice, meat and vegetables available. China’s National People’s Congress may have passed a new food safety law this March in the wake of the tainted milk powder scandal last year, but the quality of food for the mass market in China remains extremely poor and is still potentially hazardous.

The use of poor quality and potentially dangerous food and water on construction sites is just yet another example of how China’s construction workers are routinely abused and taken for granted. For a detailed examination of their plight see One Year of My Blood, a report published by Human Rights Watch in 2008 on the exploitation of migrant construction workers in Beijing.