2015-07-02
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People block garbage trucks to protest the forced operation of a waste incineration plant in Anci village of Langfang city district in northern China’s Hebei province, June 30, 2015.
(Photo courtesy of the villagers)
Authorities in the northern Chinese province of Hebei are holding at least 10 people after police threw a security cordon around a waste incinerator plant following clashes with angry local residents.
Some 2,000 residents of Luofa township near Hebei’s Langfang city took to the streets on Tuesday, blockading the waste incinerator plant near their homes in protest over the plant’s location, saying they weren’t consulted before it was built three years ago.
Recently, news leaked out that Langfang officials had given the order to start operation at the plant, a Luofa resident surnamed Cui told RFA on Thursday.
“Local people stopped any vehicles from getting into the plant, because it is located just 300-400 meters from our homes,” Cui said.
“In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the police moved in, and the villagers refused to move, so the police started to clear the area,” she said.
“There were even worse clashes [later], after more than 30 waste trucks showed up at the plant,” she said. “The villagers charged them, and the police started hitting them and pushing them back.”
“More than 10 people were detained; I don’t know where they took them, and more than 20 people were injured,” Cui said.
A Luofa resident surnamed Wu said protesters had begun a sit-in late on Tuesday, clashing with police who showed up to move them.
He said elderly people were among those injured in the clashes.
“Things got out of hand and I think the government overreacted, sending in the security forces to beat and shove people, even old people,” Wu said. “At least 20, maybe 30 people were injured.”
According to Cui, the authorities had only told people they were building a power generation plant, not that the power would be produced from waste incineration.
“Eventually, we heard that this was going to be a waste incineration power plant, not a regular power plant, so of course we didn’t want that,” she said.
“Then the government just announced it would begin operations on July 1, and the waste would start coming in for burning, so the villagers got together on [Tuesday] and went to block it,” Cui said, citing concerns over carcinogenic waste products of the process.
“Burning household waste could harm our health, because of the dioxins,” she said.
