Twelve illegal quarries have been shut down in Huizhou’s Chongkai High-tech Industry Development Zone after over 400 local villagers were found to be suffering from lithiasis, a condition causing concretions of mineral salts, or calculi, in the pancreas, tear ducts, appendix, or kidneys, GDChinanews reported Saturday.

The sufferers make up 80% of the population of Yongping Village which is located in the zone’s Tonghu Town. The quarries have been closed until the cause of the epidemic is identified.

Tonghu Town, which is located on the south bank of the Dongjiang River and borders Dongguan’s Qiaotou Town, was once a famously beautiful landscape. But since the amount of quarrying done in the area increased exponentially in 2008, the area has suffered much environmental degradation, most obviously through dust clouds in the air and heavy trucks damaging local roads.

The quarries are also the most likely cause of the amount of villagers suffering from lithiasis.

The problem of illegal quarries in the Pearl River Delta was reported on by South China Morning Post way back in 1995:

‘Most of them operated without careful planning or environmental protection measures. Owners often abandoned their sites after making a high profit,’ a Guangzhou official was quoted as saying.

‘They destroyed mountains, cut trees and undermined the landscape of the cities.

‘They thought they would not be punished. That’s why accidents and torture were so common in their mines,’ the paper said.

It blamed local departments for insufficient supervision.

Many illegal quarries were said to be virtual concentration camps, with hellish conditions. In some quarries, 50 or 60 workers had to sleep together in rooms of about 161 square feet.

However, in spite of the quarries being an affront to the ecological environment and human rights, the problem has continued to spring up sporadically across the nation.

In 2001, The Ministry of Land and Resources issued a ban on the unauthorized removal of sand along the Yangtze River in an attempt to protect the river’s natural water conservatory facilities and ensure the smooth flow of transport.