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A huge stink about plans to burn trash
By Wang Pan and Li Jianmin |
November 30, 2009, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
WHEN hundreds of people in a south China city took to the streets last week to protest a planned garbage incinerator project, they highlighted a growing problem for China's booming cities.
The protestors in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, were demanding the local government scrap the incinerator plant, which, they claimed, would release carcinogens.
"The incineration of household garbage can generate cancer-causing substances like dioxin," resident Guo Lin said. "It is really absurd. How can the government come up with such an idea? More than 300,000 people are living around the proposed incinerator plant."
The government and residents have been divided on whether to build the plant since late September when the plan was first unveiled.
"The Panyu District is home to 2.5 million people and almost 600,000 tons of household garbage are created every year," said Ye Wen, deputy director of the Panyu District Bureau of Urban Utilities and Landscaping. "Our current waste disposal capabilities cannot cope with the increasing amount of household garbage."
The new incinerator is planned for the site of a former landfill in Huijiang Village, with a designed handling capacity of 2,000 tons daily. It would also be a trash-fired power plant.
"After years of deliberation, the municipal government has decided to develop trash-fired power plants as they do not occupy much land and can utilize resources very efficiently," said Xu Jianyun, deputy director of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee of Urban Administration.
He said the city, with a population of more than 10 million, generates up to 12,000 tons of household garbage each day. "If new waste treatment facilities are not built, Guangzhou will face a huge garbage crisis over the next two years."
Lu Zhiyi, deputy secretary-general of the Guangzhou municipal government and a strong supporter of the incinerator project, dismissed pollution fears. "With modern technology, the waste discharge of the incinerator is able to meet national and international standards," he said.
But residents disagree. "We have collected a great deal of information about waste-to-energy plants on the Internet, in books and field surveys, all showing that they are heavily polluting and have been abandoned in many countries," resident Zhao Hui said.
"We can learn from developed countries and solve the problem through garbage classification and land-filling. Why do we have to use incineration?" he said.
In addition to health and pollution fears, residents worry about the value of their properties.
It is a dilemma not only for the Panyu District and Guangzhou, but for cities across China, as protests against government plans to build waste incinerators have also been reported in Beijing, Shenzhen in Guangdong Province and cities in Jiangsu Province earlier this year.
"The government and public are quarreling over many technical issues," said Wang Zechu, a counselor for the Guangdong provincial government. "Both government officials and residents fail to provide convincing environment and health data related to the incinerator."
Local residents say they should have been invited to discuss the incinerator from the outset when the project was proposed.
The Panyu district government has halted the controversial project and will launch a half-year consultation process with the public, the media and experts to look for a better way to treat household garbage.
(The authors are Xinhua writers.)
The protestors in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, were demanding the local government scrap the incinerator plant, which, they claimed, would release carcinogens.
"The incineration of household garbage can generate cancer-causing substances like dioxin," resident Guo Lin said. "It is really absurd. How can the government come up with such an idea? More than 300,000 people are living around the proposed incinerator plant."
The government and residents have been divided on whether to build the plant since late September when the plan was first unveiled.
"The Panyu District is home to 2.5 million people and almost 600,000 tons of household garbage are created every year," said Ye Wen, deputy director of the Panyu District Bureau of Urban Utilities and Landscaping. "Our current waste disposal capabilities cannot cope with the increasing amount of household garbage."
The new incinerator is planned for the site of a former landfill in Huijiang Village, with a designed handling capacity of 2,000 tons daily. It would also be a trash-fired power plant.
"After years of deliberation, the municipal government has decided to develop trash-fired power plants as they do not occupy much land and can utilize resources very efficiently," said Xu Jianyun, deputy director of the Guangzhou Municipal Committee of Urban Administration.
He said the city, with a population of more than 10 million, generates up to 12,000 tons of household garbage each day. "If new waste treatment facilities are not built, Guangzhou will face a huge garbage crisis over the next two years."
Lu Zhiyi, deputy secretary-general of the Guangzhou municipal government and a strong supporter of the incinerator project, dismissed pollution fears. "With modern technology, the waste discharge of the incinerator is able to meet national and international standards," he said.
But residents disagree. "We have collected a great deal of information about waste-to-energy plants on the Internet, in books and field surveys, all showing that they are heavily polluting and have been abandoned in many countries," resident Zhao Hui said.
"We can learn from developed countries and solve the problem through garbage classification and land-filling. Why do we have to use incineration?" he said.
In addition to health and pollution fears, residents worry about the value of their properties.
It is a dilemma not only for the Panyu District and Guangzhou, but for cities across China, as protests against government plans to build waste incinerators have also been reported in Beijing, Shenzhen in Guangdong Province and cities in Jiangsu Province earlier this year.
"The government and public are quarreling over many technical issues," said Wang Zechu, a counselor for the Guangdong provincial government. "Both government officials and residents fail to provide convincing environment and health data related to the incinerator."
Local residents say they should have been invited to discuss the incinerator from the outset when the project was proposed.
The Panyu district government has halted the controversial project and will launch a half-year consultation process with the public, the media and experts to look for a better way to treat household garbage.
(The authors are Xinhua writers.)
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