At first glance, it might seem like just a black truck filled with bottles of water, but a closer look reveals a darker — or rather murkier — side to what is sloshing around inside.
Its cargo of more than 500 bottles of Nongfu Spring, an ubiquitous Chinese brand, filled with contaminated drinking water from the village of Xiaohaotu in China’s northwestern Shaanxi Province is being driven around Beijing as a reminder of the costs of the country’s rapid economic development.
The mobile exhibition, created by Nut Brother (堅果兄弟) — an artist known for advocacy work on environmental and social issues — was created in defiance after his initial show was shut down.
Shocked by Shaanxi’s dirty drinking water during a work trip to the province in May, the 37-year-old enlisted the help of villagers to fill 9,000 empty Nongfu bottles and transported them to Beijing, where they were installed in a museum.
Nut Brother’s exhibition caught the attention of Nongfu Spring Co, and two weeks later authorities from the Beijing Industrial and Commercial Bureau dismantled his display, removing most of the bottled water.
The company later filed a complaint, claiming his work infringed on its copyright.
“Nongfu Spring literally means ‘farmer’s spring water,’ using village farmers as a brand,” said Nut Brother, who does not reveal his name to the media. “But the reality is farmers don’t drink this water. A lot of their water is seriously tainted with pollution.”
Nongfu Spring Co’s legal department refused interview requests and calls to their public relations team went unanswered.
Large parts of China are blanketed in toxic smog and suffer from polluted waterways as a result of the country’s economic boom.
While much attention has been paid to the impact of rapid industrialization on China’s air, the effects on the country’s water supply are less well-known — and less visible.
Across China, much of the water is “unfit for human contact,” and 14 of 31 provinces failed to meet water quality targets, despite a nationwide push for improvement in previous years, a Greenpeace East Asia report said last year.
“They’ve been drinking this water for more than 10 years,” Nut Brother said.
The samples contain high levels of iron and manganese, which can be toxic in large doses, he said.
“It’s not fit for consumption, but the villagers have no choice,” he added.
The roving exhibit seems to have startled some visitors.
“It’s shocking to know we have people who drink this kind of water,” one onlooker said.
Another passerby bravely took a swig from a bottle.
“You can definitely feel bits of the dirt,” he said. “It makes me feel very lucky to be able to drink clean water. Very lucky.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in