Burning question on waste disposal

Chen Liwen is suing Guangzhou's Environmental Protection Bureau after it refused to fully disclose all the information she requested about the city's only waste incineration power plant. The 31-year-old, who has investigated pollution caused by inappropriate waste disposal since 2010, says getting waste disposal statistics from government is an important part of her work for an environmental NGO, but few governments provided all the information she asked for, even though the mainland had enacted legislation on the disclosure of government information in 2008.

I started with the climate change team at a Beijing-based environmental NGO, Global Village, after I earned my master's degree in 2008. I joined another NGO, Nature University, and started focusing on waste issues at the beginning of 2010. After visiting many waste incineration power plants, I realised they're having a big impact on the environment and society.

On July 20 last year, I submitted an application for four pieces of information on the Likeng waste incineration power plant via the website of Guangzhou's Environmental Protection Bureau. They were: the whole draft of the environmental assessment report on the Likeng project; statistics on air pollutants and dioxin emission by the project between June 2006 and last June; statistics on the production of ash and cinders and how they were treated during the same period; and whether the Likeng project was Guangdong's major source of dioxin emissions.

According to the Regulations for the Disclosure of Government Information, government bodies should reply to public requests for information disclosure within 15 working days. I received the bureau's written reply more than a month later, which just gave some statistics in the second category of information I asked for.