Wuhan Huangtupo Village is a rural village with only 585 residents. Over the years, 62 people have died from cancer and leukemia, many of whom are under 50 years old.

Villagers suspect that the issue is related to long-term pollution from a soda ash factory at the village entrance. Because before 2016, the villagers drank groundwater, and not only was there severe dust near the factory, but crops around the sewage discharge ditch also grew poorly.
More importantly, this is not a case of no one reporting it.
Since 2022, villagers have continuously complained to environmental protection authorities and the mayor’s hotline. Subsequently, the Wuhan Municipal Ecology and Environment Bureau investigated and found that this factory had no environmental impact assessment (EIA), no sewage discharge permit, and was located within the ecological control line.
In theory, the problem should already be very serious.
But the reality is:
The company was fined 200k yuan but seemingly continued production;
Environmental testing was questioned as a “formality”;
The central environmental inspection team repeatedly transferred the case, and four years have passed without a real resolution.
What is most unsettling about the whole incident is not just the pollution itself.
It is that ordinary people, after long-term reporting and continuous appeals, still see the issue dragged out repeatedly.
What villagers want to know most now may only be one question:
Is there really no problem with the water they have been drinking all these years?