The worst day of Bathsheba Musole’s life started with a deafening crash when the 30-foot wall around a toxic-waste pool collapsed at the Chinese copper mine above her village.
A poisonous river of a stinking yellow liquid rushed downhill, inundating homes and fields, including the one where she grew corn to feed her eight children. The floodwater, laden with cyanide and arsenic, rose chest-high. “I thought I would drown,” said Musole, 48 years old, in a recent interview.
They were there to make things right, she recalled them saying. Their offer was $150, but it came with a catch.
