The price of success: China blighted by industrial pollution – in pictures

Wastewater discharged from a denim washing factory in Xintang.
“Xintang and Gurao are symbols of success in China's export-model economy, yet we were horrified by the environmental degradation,” says Greenpeace Toxics campaigner Mariah Zhao.
Greenpeace testing found five heavy metals (cadmium, chromium, mercury, lead and copper) in 17 out of 21 samples taken in two towns. In one sample, cadmium exceeded China's national limits by 128 times Photograph: Lu Guang/Greenpeace

A shop at the International Jeans Wholesale City in Xintang.
With a population of 215,000 residents and 500,000 migrant workers, 4,000 companies and an output value of 28bn yen, Xintang is known as the 'jeans capital of the world'. In 2008 it produced more than 260 million pairs of jeans – 60% of China’s total jeans production and 40% of the jeans sold in the US each year Photograph: Lu Guang/Greenpeace

Factories large and small fill the streets of Xintang, as well as family workshops housed in makeshift sheds. Everywhere you go people are busy making and processing jeans by hand. Women, elderly people and children often do simple thread-cutting jobs to supplement the family income Photograph: Lu Guang/Greenpeace

A young boy works with his parents at a small jeans workshop in Dadun village, Xintang. He earns 0.15 yen for snipping loose thread ends off one pair of jeans; in one day he can do about 200 pairs Photograph: Lu Guang/Greenpeace

Wastewater discharged from a denim washing factory in Xintang. Villagers complain about the printing and dyeing factories’ wastewater that discharges into the local river, which in turn flows into the Pearl River delta Photograph: Lu Guang/Greenpeace

Every morning, workers search through wastewater to scoop out the stones used to make stonewash denim Photograph: Lu Guang/Greenpeace

A Greenpeace campaigner takes a water sample from a polluted river near Dadun village, Xintang. The charity visited the two towns between April and September last year.
“Everyone says that people who work in dyeing and washing have reproductive and fertility problems. My cousin once worked in a dyeing plant. He died of pleurisy,” says Lin Zhixin, a migrant worker from Sichuan Photograph: Lu Guang/Greenpeace

Gurao is filled with billboards advertising lingerie and underwear. The town – of 150,000 residents and 140,000 migrants workers with 3,000 companies and an output value of nearly 4bn yen – is filled with family workshops, factories, and markets dedicated to making and selling underwear. Not surprisingly, Gurao has earned itself the nickname “the capital of sexy” Photograph: Lu Guang/Greenpeace

A lingerie shop in Gurao Photograph: Lu Guang/Greenpeace

In 2009, Gurao produced more than 200 million bras. But the local river, the Xiao Xi, has suffered.
Villagers nearby say that the dirty, smelly river is no longer fit for drinking or laundry. Fish no longer live in the river and when it overflows, local people's yards and homes are flooded by wastewater Photograph: Lu Guang/Greenpeace

A drainage ditch clogged with wastewater and trash in Gurao Photograph: Lu Guang/Greenpeace

Once fertile fields outside Gurao lay abandoned Photograph: Lu Guang/Greenpeace

A sleeping infant in a weaving factory Photograph: Lu Guang/Greenpeace

Factory workers print designs on to fabric in Gurao.
Ren Shan, a migrant worker from Guizhou, says: “The water is discharged from the dyeing factories upstream. Sometimes it smells really awful. And every time the color of the water is different – I’ve seen every color imaginable" Photograph: Lu Guang/Greenpeace

These five children go to school during the day and work at night and on weekends in a fabric workshop. Three are local children, and two are from Hunan and Guizhou. They get 0.3 yuan each for every 100 bra straps that they attach to a machine accessory, which will be used in the next step of the bra assembly process. In one day they can earn 20 to 30 yuan each
Photograph: Lu Guang/Greenpeace

Students in Gurao try to block out fumes from the trash incineration.
“Xintang and Gurao are emblematic of the larger problem of dirty textile manufacturing – they are just two of 133 textile industrial clusters in the country,” says Greenpeace's Mariah Zhao. “The responsibility of wastewater regulation and phasing out hazardous chemicals in textiles must be faced by not only Xintang and Gurao overnment but throughout China.” Photograph: Lu Guang/Greenpeace