Shenzhen landslide aftermath: Official who rubber-stamped waste dump that triggered disaster takes his own life.

A government official who approved a construction waste dump that triggered the massive landslide in Shenzhen last week has jumped from a building to his death, state media reported.
Police received a tip-off that a man had fallen from a building in a residential area of the Nanshan district of the city, the state-run news agency Xinhua said.

Investigators at the scene found the man had committed suicide, the report said, citing a statement from the district Public Security Bureau.
The man was identified as Xu Yuanan, the director of Shenzhen Guangming New District Urban Management Bureau.

Seven people are confirmed to have died in the disaster and 75 are still missing after a massive landslide of dumped earth and construction waste buried buildings at an industrial estate on December 20.
Xu, 52, was promoted head of the bureau in 2009, according to an earlier statement about his appointment.

The urban management bureau is responsible for inspecting waste dumps and public records show it issued an order for the site to close in July until it addressed safety problems.
Trucks, however, were still seen unloading waste at the dump in the days leading up the landslide earlier this month, according to residents in the area.
The dump was formally approved in February, but construction work on the project was completed in October last year, according to earlier reports.

An investigation team sent by the State Council, China’s cabinet, has ruled the landslide was a man-made disaster as it was created by lax safety at the tip rather than geological conditions.

Xu’s death has echoes of the suicide of an official in Tianjin who took his life after the huge blasts at a dangerous goods warehouse at the city’s port in August.
The official at the city’s transport commission was in charge of issuing approvals for schemes.
He jumped to his death two weeks after the explosions.

A day after his death, his boss – the director of the commission – was put in custody for his role in approving and issuing a business licence for the warehouse.
The owner of a gypsum mine in Shandong province that collapsed last week, trapping 17 miners, killed himself on Sunday after jumping into a well, Xinhua reported.
One person is known to have died in the mine accident.

By: Zhuang Pinghui. 

Review: Emerging Market Formulations & Research Unit, Flagship Records.
For The #FacebookTeam