Farmer spends 16 years studying laws to sue a major chemical company

There are stories like the one we have in our hands that end up becoming a movie for various reasons and that is that a person's will literally move mountains or become the modern David and Goliath.

A Chinese farmer has been Last 16 years studying law on his own account in order to sue a major chemical company that has allegedly contaminated his land. But the most important thing is that he has won the first instance of the trial, much to everyone's surprise.

Wang Enlin, who had received no more than three years of school education, has won the first instance in a high-profile case against the state-owned Qihua Group. Although Qihua Group, whose assets exceed £ 233 million, has appealed against the decision, Enlin has made it clear that he is determined in the search of justice for himself and his neighbors who could not keep their seeds healthy in their already contaminated lands.

The farmer, in his sixties, lives in Yushutun village on the outskirts of Qiqihar in Heilongjiang province. The man said he would forever remember the year 2001 when his land was flooded for a toxic waste released by Qihua Group.

It was the eve of the Lunar New Year and Mr. Wang was playing cards with his neighbors. All of them realized that the house was flooded by sewage from the nearby Quihua factory. Waste water too came to farmland of the villa.

According to a 2001 government document, it claims that the affected farmland cannot be used for a long time due to pollution. Between 2001 and 2016, Qihua continued with the wastewater discharges to the town, whose inhabitants relegate agriculture to subsist.

The company produced polyvinyl chloride and dumped 15.000 to 20.000 tons of waste chemicals every year. In 2001, Mr. Wang wrote a letter to the Qiqihar Land Resources Office to complain about the pollution produced by Qihua to the people. He was told to present evidence to present against Qihua, but as he says, he did not know what law the other party had broken or if there was evidence of it.

As a result, Mr. Wang decided to study law for himself, an epic that would take 16 years of his life. I had no money to buy books, so day after day read books from the bookstore and copied the information relevant at hand. In exchange, he would return bags of corn for free for the grocer to let him be there.

It was at 2007 when a specialized Chinese law firm In pollution related cases they began to provide free legal advice to Mr. Wang and his neighbors. The strange thing was that it was not until 2015 that the process of the case began, eight years after the original petition.

Thanks to the data offered by Mr. Wang that he has been collecting for 16 years, he and his neighbors have won the first instance. The Quqihar District Court ruled that the families of Yushutun village have to receive financial compensation equivalent to £ 96.000.