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Protests help clear the air

By Qian Yanfeng (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-04 08:05

Like Guo and his neighbors, many people have taken their argument to the local authorities with petitions and protests, putting more pressure on departments and officials.

Environment and media savvy villagers in Henan province took to the streets last Wednesday to demonstrate against a nearby chemical plant and demand free medical treatment. Meanwhile, a court in Guizhou province last Tuesday accepted a lawsuit against the Qingzhen municipal government filed by the All-China Environment Federation on behalf of residents angry over a construction project that is believed to have polluted two lakes.

Journalists have also put their careers and lives at risk to expose pollution and corruption.

It seems these voices have been heard in Beijing, with the central government rolling out a series of initiatives and allocating 350 billion yuan ($51.2 billion) over two years to boost environmental protection efforts as part of the 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package announced in November last year. But, as Guo explained, there are no easy solutions.

"The government is focused on economic growth, so, more often than not, they think less about the environment," he added. "All they will do is urge companies to reduce levels of pollution. They won't shut them down."

Ju Chunfang, an environmental protection officer for Pudong district, admitted mistakes had been made in allowing the construction of high-polluting plants so near to communities and said that, no matter what advancements were made in environmental protection technologies, risks would always exist. "No matter how much we improve environmental protection technologies, we will never achieve zero emissions and that is bound to affect the lives of locals," he said. "This is a historical problem. The Chinese thought even less about that in the last century when economic development was everything.

"Closing the major factories now is not an option; they contribute too much to the local tax revenue and employ too many people. Also, the Pudong government does not have enough money to relocate the entire village away from a chemical-heavy region, especially now when its GDP growth has plunged to record low thanks to the financial crisis.

"We need time to sort things out and we have learned not to make the same mistakes again by improving regional environmental planning."

But the knowledge gained from these harsh lessons could be put to the test during the latest round of economic development. With the State Council's pledge to maintain 8 percent growth of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, research has shown large investment projects could once again be put ahead of environmental concerns.

Zhao Hong, a senior petrochemical industry consultant for Beijing-based CCID Consulting, said the government is working to reduce pollution through acquisitions, shutting down small companies to make room for bigger ones with better environmental standards.

But almost a quarter of the 118 new projects approved by local governments last year violated environmental regulations, according to a study by the MEP, which has said it will investigate every scheme that springs from the stimulus package to make sure local authorities do not bypass the rules.

Chen Hongjun, director of the resources and environment research center for the Guangzhou Institute of Geography (GIG), said raising local tax revenue was the only way for local governments to showcase their efforts to develop the economy, explaining why so many cities and towns open their doors to the petrochemical industry.

It was listed as one of the 10 key industries to be revitalized by the Chinese government this year, with a target growth in investment of 27 percent year on year.

Experts estimate that every 10,000 tons of petrochemical production generate returns of at least 100 million yuan. A project with an annual production volume of 15 million tons is believed to contribute 150 billion yuan a year to the local GDP.

It is little surprise, then, that a contentious joint Sinopec and Kuwait Petroleum project, which promised to produce 15 million tons a year, was so eagerly courted by Zhanjiang and Huizhou in Guangdong province after it was rejected by neighboring Guangzhou in May this year because of environmental concerns.

It had originally been planned for the city's Nansha district, on the mouth of the Pearl River and just 70 km from downtown, but was thrown out after local residents and officials in Hong Kong protested against it, Nanfengchuang magazine reported.

Zhanjiang and Huizhou saw the move as a boon, but Zhao Yuming, a senior engineer at Nanjing University's school of environment, warned their governments to consider the suitability of the project for local conditions.

"Environments and populations must be considered, while China should have an umbrella plan for petrochemical projects as unregulated competition between cities will only aggravate environmental hazards," he said.

Chen at the GIG added: "Although Guangzhou rejected the project, it seems awareness of regional environmental planning is still lacking. It's not about whether a project meets emission standards, it's about whether an area can deal with the combined emissions it is exposed to."

The central Chongqing municipality also has plans for a "world-class chemical park" along the Yangtze River, with BASF, a leading international chemical firm, set to build a base to manufacture MDI (methylene diphenyl diisocyanate), the raw material in polyurethane that is widely used in housing and construction industries, in the Three Gorges reservoir area in 2010.

Protests help clear the air

Production of MDI is known to have potential environmental hazards as it involves toxic raw materials and hazardous intermediate products, such as nitrobenzene, which was the major pollutant spilled into the Songhua River in 2005 and forced the city of Harbin in Heilongjiang province to suspend water supplies for nearly four days.

The MEP has already approved the project, according to local media reports, but environmental groups have warned any chemical spills in this area would pollute the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and potentially affect drinking water supplies to millions of people.

A spokesman for BASF said the company adopts unified safety standards based on years of experience and, in the event of an accident, operations would be halted automatically to minimize the environmental impact.

"Although BASF is a world leader in technology and would strive to keep its production clean, no one can be 100 percent sure no accident will occur," said Chen. "People tend to forget that, even if a company could reduce its emissions per unit of production, it wouldn't necessarily mean less pollution given the total amount of emissions, not to mention the fact that pollutant types from petrochemical projects are much more than what we are able to track and measure."

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