Nine major industrial plants in the southern city of Guangzhou
will be removed from the city's urban center by 2010 as part of an
anti-pollution drive, sources with the Guangzhou environmental
protection department said recently.
The move comes after Guangzhou Hoton Chemical (Group) Co Ltd,
one of the key raw chemical production bases in the city, was
blacklisted by the national environmental protection watchdog
earlier this month for causing "serious problems," including
potentially excessive pollution.
The nine enterprises, which include the Hoton company, were set
up in the area when it was an industrial zone, but more residential
areas have since been created there in the wake of urban
expansion.
The Hoton firm, which was set up in 1956, now has more than
12,000 people living within a 500-meter radius of the plant and
100,000 residents within a 1,500-meter radius.
The eastern part of Guangzhou, where Hoton is located, has
developed into one of the city's key business and residential
centers.
"A decade ago, we did not expect that the area around our
company would have so many people living in it," said Kuang
Chaochun, managing director of Hoton.
He claimed the company has been considering relocating out of
the area since 2002. He stressed the firm was conscious of the need
to protect the local environment.
"We attach great importance to production safety. We have an
environmental protection office to inspect and examine
environmental effects and deal with possible production problems,"
Kuang said in an interview with China Daily.
However, the company was one of 11 chemical plants named by the
State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) in a nationwide
survey of 78 factories that posed serious environmental threats and
potential dangers.
Sources with SEPA said that Hoton did not have any warning
mechanisms or facilities to deal with possible chemical spills.
SEPA has strongly suggested that the plant be moved out of the
residential area.
"A chemical spill, together with other environmental threats,
would lead to a disaster not only for the chemical plant, but for
residents. So, it is necessary to remove the plant out of the
residential areas," said an official surnamed Huang, with the
Guangzhou Environmental Bureau.
Although Hoton hasn't been linked to any environmental incidents
since its establishment, the company will still be moved out of the
residential area by 2008, according to Huang.
Along with the relocation plan for the nine industrial plants,
the local government is conducting a new round of inspections of
the city's chemical factories that will last until June.
"Any plants found to have potential dangers or posing great
serious environmental threats would be asked to install or upgrade
the required facilities," Huang said.
Apart from the inspection program, Zhang Jinmeng, a professor
from South
China University of Technology, said the city needed to modify
its industrial structure in any case to prevent serious
accidents.
According to Zhang, about half of the Guangzhou-based plants to
be relocated specialize in chemical production and are located
along the Pearl River, posing a severe threat to water supplies to
the city.
Guangzhou's proposals to relocate chemical plants are in
accordance with a national environmental campaign that was launched
after last November's chemical spill in northeast China's Songhua
River.
SEPA is supervising and launching national inspections of medium
and large-sized enterprises along major rivers and their
tributaries, especially chemical plants in water-source areas or
densely populated regions.
(China Daily February 21, 2006)