Incinerator plant back on

Hubei officials warned: no repeat of 2016 protests

An economic planner in Xiantao, Central China’s Hubei Province, has urged local officials to “deeply understand” the significance of a proposed incineration plant, after a previous project was suspended following protests in 2016 from by residents.

A citywide campaign to facilitate a recycling park project, which includes the incineration plant, was initiated in early April, with the support from Xiantao’s development and reform commission, traffic police division and publicity bureau.

But before the plant started, Zhou Yiqun, chairman of the Xiantao Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, told a meeting on April 5 that the government has to make sure there would be no dissent, petition or negative information during construction, the Xiantao Daily reported.

According to the Hubei provincial government website, the Xiaotan government signed a contract for the plant with the Infore Environment Technology Group on February 16 to resume work. The plant, with a processing capacity of 1,000 tons of waste per day, will be built within four years.

However, many Xiantao residents who live close to the planned site have expressed their discontent, saying that the plant, which was expected to be built less than 1,000 meters from their houses, will bring serious pollution and pose health risks.

Emissions from incineration plants contain dioxin, a toxic substance which can accumulate inside the human body and be hard to eliminate, said Zhao Zhangyuan, a research fellow at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.

He added that those exposed to dioxin for a long time are at high risk of developing cancer.

However, in a publicity video about the project, Liu Muxiang, a Hongguang community official in Ganhe district, where the plant is to be built, claimed that the plant will be enclosed, so that it won’t discharge harmful gas.

Local residents who required anonymity told the Global Times that “there are two primary schools within 1,000 meters of the plant.”

“We have no objections to the plant, but it has to be built far from the residential area,” said one female resident.

The Xiantao publicity department did not reply to the interview request of the Global Times as of press time.

According to government data, though, the city produces 1,200 tons of waste per day and the current standard landfill for the area can only process 500 tons.

The construction of incineration plants has long been a source of controversy in China, with residents in Hunan, Guangzhou and Zhejiang provinces taking to the street to protest.

In 2016, Friends of Nature and the Wuhu Ecology Center, two environmental protection NGOs, issued a report that emissions from waste- incineration plants across China generally exceed national standards, especially in East China’s Zhejiang and Fujian provinces, where emissions were found to be several thousand times higher than standardized limits.