Back in February, I posted an article about Chinese Vice Minister of Railways Sun Yongfu, who had been awarded the China Environment Prize for his "arduous efforts" in protecting the environment along the new Qinghai-Tibet Railway.Chinese state media now reports that the railway linking Tibet to other Chinese regions could fuel the spread of rat-borne diseases such as plague that mainly affect remote areas of northwest China.
Quoting State Forestry Administration officials, The China Daily, said the spread of plague was currently under control because of the lack of rail access to remote affected areas in Tibet, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia. But once the railway was operational, controlling a plague epidemic could prove difficult.
Wu Jian, chief engineer of the administration's department of afforestation said, "This year, we have to do more to prevent plague as the disease is likely to spread to more areas with the operation of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway".
