Land collapses prompt safety fears for farmers in Hubei

Recent instances of land collapses have threatened the safety of locals who are determined to plant crops on mined-out areas in Central China's Hubei Province, the Wuhan Evening News reported.

The Dongbao district of Jingmen was rich in gypsum deposits in the past, but after 40 years of exploitation, a large section of the area has been mined out and there have been collapses there since 2010.

Yang Lixiang, a local resident in the Xinqiao village of Dongbao, recently encountered land collapses on August 20 and 23, the second of which made her house collapse into ruins.

According to the Wuhan Evening News, about 33 collapses have occurred in suburbs of Jingmen, and about 380,000 square meters of the area is at risk.

Realizing the threat to public safety, the Dongbao government began to close gypsum mines from 2010, and arranged for residents there to be relocated to other areas.

However, some farmers have continued to plant in the mined-out areas.

Gypsum is slightly soluble in water and is weakened when wet, and the pillars and the surface of the mined-out areas are softening when they encounter the increasing levels of groundwater, Wang Yuchuan, the head of the geological environment office of the Department of Land and Resource of Jingmen, was cited as saying by the Wuhan Evening News.

Wang also noted that Jingmen is strengthening management over mined-out areas, regulating the pillars that support the land, backfilling the waste, and collecting special funds.

Du Jiping, a professor at the China University of Mining and Technology, suggested that filling empty underground areas may lessen the effects of the collapses.

"The land collapses because it is empty underground. We can fill it with dry stone and other kinds of solid waste after exploitation," Du told the Global Times.

An industry insider said that land collapses could be avoided if industries carried out proper maintenance during resource extraction.

He also noted that industry associations should be given more power and could play a more important role. In regard to remedial measures, he said, "We can fill stuff in it or make it into an artificial lake."