January 9, 2008
In an unprecedented move, the Chinese government appears to have bowed to public pressure to relocate a controversial chemical plant, reports Nature.
“This is the first time public opinion was properly expressed through official channels and had an impact on government policies,” says Liu Jianqiang, a Beijing-based environment writer and TGP contributor.
Construction of the plant began in 2006 in the port town of Xiamen in southeast China. The plant is set to annually produce 800,000 tonnes of paraxylene — a highly toxic chemical that is linked to cancer and birth defects.
Concerns over the plant’s health and environmental dangers were brought to light last March, when Xiamen University researcher Zhao Yufen led a petition to the Beijing parliament calling for the plant to be relocated away from residential areas.
A popular blog posted an article about the health risks described by Zhao, causing a national debate. On June 1st, tens of thousands of Xiamenese participated in a peaceful protest against the plant and the company’s polluting records in the region.
In response, the State Environmental Protection Agency’s (SEPA) deputy environment minister Pan Yue called for an independent environmental impact assessment and critique of Xiamen’s urban development plans.
Pan’s publicly released report criticized the plant owners’ repeated emission breaches and refusal to cooperate with the local environmental protection bureau. The plant may now be moved about 70 kilometres inland to neighbouring city Zhangzhou.
Categories: China Pollution
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