Domestic News

Source: AP

Date: 16/02/16

File: Rescuers clean up the debris at the blast site in Tianjin, north China, Aug. 23, 2015. (Xinhua/Yin Dongxun)

Authorities in the northern city of Tianjin are moving 10 chemical plants found to be too close to residential areas, six months after a devastating chemical accident killed 173 people.

The Tianjin Binhai New Area suffered one of China's worst industrial accidents last August when a warehouse storing combustible chemicals exploded less than a kilometer away from apartments — the legally required distance.

The head of the Binhai Work Safety Bureau’s news office, who gave his name as Shi, said that the 10 plants were close to residential areas, though he didn't specify whether they were within a kilometer.

A recent audit of 583 chemical companies in the area found problems at 85, two of which were being moved from the beginning of last month at a cost of more than US$4 billion, according to media reports.

Aside from the 10 plants being moved, Shi said the other 75 with problems were not near residential areas but will also be eventually moved 30 kilometers south under a new plan to isolate chemical-related firms at the Nangang industrial zone. That zone is about 10 kilometers from any residential developments.

Boasting a rich history and one of the world’s busiest ports, Tianjin was earmarked by the central government to develop into the new financial nexus of northern China. But the city’s image was deeply scarred by the August blast, which damaged more than 17,000 homes, scorched entire tracts of parked cars and left a crater 6 meters deep, raising concerns about the downside of breakneck development.

The central government has pledged to shore up industrial regulations across the country and a State Council panel earlier this month recommended punishing 120 people, including high-level Party officials in Tianjin and company executives, for violating or failing to enforce laws related to the blasts.