2015-04-15
Smoke is discharged from chimneys at an oil refining and chemical plant in China’s Shandong province, Feb. 9, 2014.
ImagineChina
Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have detained at least 10 people following clashes between police and local residents protesting pollution from a nearby ironworks, ethnic minority residents of Daying village near Qingyuan city said on Wednesday.
At least 10 people were injured after riot police were sent in to disperse a crowd of protesters who had blocked the entry to the Mingfeng Pipe Fittings Products factory for several days, members of the local Yao ethnic minority told RFA.
“They behaved as if they were going after criminals,” local resident Hai Shu said. “A lot of people saw the police beating up an elderly guy over 60.”
“They pinned him to the floor like a criminal suspect, and he had a black eye and a bloody nose and face,” Hai said.
“Four of them dragged him into their vehicle and held him down with their boots; he wasn’t allowed to move an inch,” he said.
Local residents say that pollution from the iron plant in nearby Yao’an township has gotten progressively worse since it opened three years ago.
Environmental officials have visited the area to take samples, but no results have been made public, they said.
“One village doesn’t have enough water, so they have to use water from the river, and 50 to 60 people had diarrhea and vomiting,” Hai said.
“Also, all the duck eggs around here near the river are all very red inside.”
Hai said the villagers suspect the plant of sending toxic effluent into the river, just 10 meters away.
“There is also horrible smoke that covers the sky, and we can often smell it in the evenings,” Hai said. “It makes people dizzy; it must be poisonous.”
River ‘severely polluted’
A second local resident surnamed Liao said local people are convinced that the plant has left the nearby river severely polluted.
“I don’t think it could pass environmental tests,” Liao said. “If these plants passed the tests, then they wouldn’t stick them out here in the back of beyond.”
An official who answered the phone at the Yao’an township government offices said the plant operates within legal guidelines.
“The government takes this very seriously, and we are following this incident,” the official said. “But I can’t say much more because we haven’t had the test results back yet.”
Repeated calls to the Mingfeng factory rang unanswered during office hours on Wednesday. Online information showed the 20,000 square-meter plant opened in 2009, and manufactures a range of cast-iron parts.
A local resident surnamed Tan said the river water exudes a foul stench, and that nearby well water had also given people serious gastrointestinal symptoms.
