Dead Plant in Inner Mongolia

Local farmer Hu Shan pulls up a dead yang chai bush near Shenhua's Number 8 water well. Yang chai is a plant that can be eaten by cattle and sheep and holds sandy soil in place but all Yang chai in the area have died due to the over exploitation of water resources by Shenhua Coal-to-Liquid project (a process for producing liquid fuel from coal). Wushen County, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.

Unique identifier: GP04OX0

Type: Image

Shoot date: 28/04/2013

Locations: Asia, China, Inner Mongolia, Ordos

Credit line: © Qiu Bo / Greenpeace

Ranking: ★★★★ (E)

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Shenhua Coal-to-Liquid Impacts in Inner Mongolia

A collection of images showing a devastated land and the effects of water shortage on people in the Ordos grasslands in Inner Mongolia. For ten years, the Chinese state-run organisation Shenhua Group, the world's biggest coal producer by volume, has sucked this land dry, exploiting water resources at a shocking scale from these beautiful grasslands to use in its coal-to-liquid project (also known as coal liquefaction, a process for producing liquid fuels from coal) and illegally dumping toxic industrial waste water. Shenhua's operations have sparked social unrest and caused severe ecological damage including desertification, impacting farmers and herders who are facing reduced water supplies in what was once an abundant farming area.

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Shenhua Coal-to-Liquid Impacts in Inner Mongolia (Photo + Video)

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