Plans submitted to move, upgrade about 1,000 chemical plants in China after Tianjin explosions disaster
Local governments on mainland have proposed moving or upgrading 1,000 sites after the blasts at a dangerous goods warehouse that killed 145
Plans have been submitted by local governments across the mainland to move or upgrade about 1,000 chemical plants after the huge explosions at a hazardous goods warehouse in Tianjin earlier this month that killed at least 145 people.
However, officials have warned that relocating the sites could prove difficult because of opposition from local residents.
Miao Wei , Minister for Industry and Information Technology, said his department had received the applications over the past several days and the disaster had prompted provincial-level governments to accelerate plans to relocate chemical plants or upgrade them.
"We started to work with the State Administration of Work Safety to make arrangements for the relocation and revamping of chemical plants in densely populated areas last year," Miao was quoted as saying in a report carried by a website controlled by the Communist Party newspaper the . "Frankly, our work in the past year or more turned out to be inadequate."
Miao told the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress yesterday that the 1,000 plants had cost about 400 billion yuan (HK$484 billion) to develop and that the money involved in moving or upgrading them would be a major issue.
Two Shanghai government officials told the the relocation of chemical plants could be an issue that would fester and take as long as 10 years to deal with as there was so much opposition.
The mainland has seen a series of huge protests in recent years over plans to construct chemical plants near residential areas. Thousands of residents living in Shanghai's Jinshan district took to the streets in June to demonstrate against the rumoured relocation of a paraxylene project to the suburban area.
The local government denied the chemical plant would be built in the district, but the protests went on for more than a week.
One of the Shanghai officials, who asked not to be named, said it had proved extremely difficult for local authorities to move dangerous chemical plants.
"Feasibility studies are being conducted by local authorities, but a shortage of funds and the reactions of the companies and people involved are the biggest hurdles," he said.
The reckless planning of chemical plants that heavily polluted the environment and posed a threat to people's health was a legacy local governments had to deal with, the Shanghai official admitted, but the problem was deep-rooted and widespread.
"Even if governments were to map out plans to relocate plants, residents living in areas near the planned new location of the facilities could protest in a wild manner with social stability issues arising," he said.
You Jia, an official at the maritime safety administration under the Shanghai transport commission, said: "The Tianjin blasts were a hard lesson for other local governments to draw upon, but it all comes down to the price to pay for the rectification work."
Hundreds of tonnes of dangerous chemicals were stored at the warehouse in Tianjin when it exploded on August 12.
Government regulations require medium and large-size hazardous warehouses to be at least 1km from homes and other businesses. At least one residential development in Tianjin was less than 1km from the blast site.
