Thousands protest pollution from trash incinerator

(TibetanReview.net, Oct29, 2009) The authorities in Pingwang Town in China's southern Jiangsu Province dispatched on Oct 22, some 3,000 anti-riot police to crackdown on tens of thousands of residents protesting against the building of a garbage incinerator plant which posed serious health hazards to them, reported the Epoch Times (New York) Oct 26, citing local residents. The protesters had begun gathering at the plant’s gate in the morning of Oct 21 and then moved to the State Road 318.

The police beat many people in front of the Pingwang Police Station the night of Oct 22, although the local newspaper Yangtse Evening News, being run by the state, published a notice from local officials on Oct 22 saying that due to public concerns the plant was being shut down. But residents reportedly don’t believe the local officials would actually terminate the plant's operation.

During its trial run on Oct 19, the plant had emitted stench and smoke across Pingwang town, forcing the residents to complain and protest. The plant was, otherwise, to start operations on Oct 21.

The local residents were said to complain that the government did not solicit their opinions before building the plant.

Incinerators play the most important role in emissions of dioxin which can cause serious health problems such as cancer, the report noted. It said a 2005 report from the World Bank warned that if China built incinerators rapidly and did not limit their emissions, worldwide atmospheric levels of dioxin could double.

Similar mass protests against trash incineration plants have occurred in Beijing, Nanjing, Guangzhou and other cites as a result of health problems.