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No decision yet, incinerator protesters told
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A CONTROVERSIAL trash incinerator project in Huizhou City in south China’s Guangdong Province is still in the discussion stage, the local government said yesterday in response to a mass protest on Saturday.
Rumors that the site had already been decided and the project was under construction were dismissed by a spokesman for the city government.
More than 1,000 people gathered at a square in the city’s Bolong County for a protest that was said to have taken place peacefully.
The spokesman said the protesters had dispersed around 11:30am.
A planned “ecological garden” will contain trash recycling, landfill, incineration and biological treatment facilities, he said.
A draft of the plan was published in the Huizhou Daily on August 16 and will be posted on the city’s housing and construction bureau website for a month.
Specialist agencies are also conducting survey and evaluation work on the project’s environmental implications and geological conditions, he said.
The government will hold hearings with the participation of residents and experts. The final decision will be made in accordance with the law and legal procedures, the government spokesman added.
The local government will give full attention to the site selection and is soliciting opinions from all sides to make a law-based scientific decision, he added.
He said he hoped the public could remain rational and express opinions and appeals in a peaceful way.
The protest is the latest to highlight how Chinese people have become increasingly wary of the environmental hazards of industrial projects.
A witness told The Associated Press that an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people had taken part in Saturday’s protest and he saw police with shields and batons take away three people who had thrown water bottles at them.
At the county offices, an official came out with a loudspeaker to tell the crowds that the government had not yet decided on a location for the incinerator, the witness said, adding that crowds had begun to disperse.
Other witnesses said the protest was orderly until police snatched banners from protesters, dispersed crowds by force and dragged away demonstrators and spectators.
Police said in a statement late on Saturday that a handful of people were suspected of illegally gathering crowds to disturb social order and traffic and that they had taken away 24 people for investigation.
A statement posted on the county public security bureau’s microblog yesterday said three people were placed under criminal detention, which means they could be formally arrested and tried in the future. Three others received an administrative punishment of up to 15 days’ detention for disturbing order in a public place. The rest were released after “being educated,” police said.
Environmental protests are on the rise in China, with the public becoming increasingly critical of the fouling of the country’s air, soil and waterways.
The Huizhou protest follows another protest by hundreds of residents in Hangzhou City over an incinerator project.
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