Riverside residents oppose power plant expansion in fight for blue sky

The recent angry chanting of slogans against a planned expansion of a coal-fired power plant by 10,000 people did more than pierce the usual serenity of Heyuan city in northeastern Guangdong. It united residents. Three months after the demonstrations erupted on April 12, reported to be the first-ever protest in the city, calm appears to have been restored - for now at least. Outside the Heyuan city government's office, on a road along the Xinfengjiang river, a major source of the Dongjiang's water supply to Hong Kong, there are no longer people holding banners that say "power plant get out of here", and "give us back our health and clear blue sky". Instead, scores of smiling locals and tourists gather along the river before 8pm every night for the Xinfengjiang musical fountain show, where water dances to music and spurts up 169 metres, making it the highest fountain in Asia. The power plant expansion spells potential trouble for Hong Kong because Heyuan is home to the Xinfengjiang reservoir, one of the three major reservoirs upstream of Dongjiang. Dongjiang water caters to 70 to 80 per cent of Hong Kong's freshwater demand. Heyuan residents say that for now they do not plan to stage another protest as it appears the investors have postponed immediate expansion plans. But a storm may be brewing. Residents are eyeing warily any decision to proceed in the future. And they intend to oppose it, confident that their actions will be successful given how they succeeded in the earlier protest. Soon after the demonstrations erupted, city officials reassured Heyuan residents that the expansion was only at a preliminary study stage. At least three people were reportedly arrested for instigating others to take part in the demonstration. Unlike in Hong Kong where protests are common, it is rare for mainlanders to take to the streets, not to mention a large-scale protest in which 10,000 gathered outside a city government office and marched around the city. "I am strongly opposed to the expansion," says a 25-year-old Heyuan resident, who took part in the protest. "Before the plant was built a few years ago, the sky was blue and clear throughout the 365 days every year. Now look at how grey it is." She and other locals say that after the first phase of the plant was built about six years ago, wheat and fruit in some areas near the plant stopped growing. Some farmers had no choice but to abandon their land and look for jobs in the city centre. The water in Heyuan is also not as clean as it was because pollutants emitted from the plant were dissolved into the water through rainfall, people say. At the centre of the heated debate is the second phase of the Heyuan Power Plant Project. The power plant is owned by Shenzhen Energy Hopewell Power (Heyuan), of which Hong Kong's Hopewell Holdings has a 40 per cent share. It is investing 8 billion yuan (HK$10.12 billion) in the expansion. There are reasons why Heyuan residents are so concerned about the harm the power plant expansion may bring. They take pride in their clear blue sky and clean Dongjiang water, which is also the key supply for several cities including Dongguan , Shenzhen and Huizhou . "People in Heyuan like me are very proud of the beautiful environment we have. If we lose that, what do we have left? How are we going to attract tourists?" says one resident. In fact, Heyuan has gone through rapid developments in the past decade. "The city centre used to be so small that, if you drove, a tour would be over in 10 minutes," says the resident. But now, luxurious high-rise buildings, completed or under construction, can be found in many corners of the city. Big shopping malls with US fast food shops, jewellery stores, fashion boutiques and cinemas are common sights. Hong Kong businessman Yip Ping-nam, who opened a factory in Heyuan in 2003 making gadgets such as light switches and power strips, has witnessed how Heyuan has evolved. "The developments in Heyuan have been very fast. When developments in Shenzhen began to reach its peak, people started to explore Heyuan," says Yip, who is also a Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference member of Yuancheng district in Heyuan. Shenzhen is about three hours away from Heyuan by bus. When Yip opened the factory there were no other factories in the vicinity. Many have since mushroomed in the area. So, have the rocket-fast developments sacrificed the clear blue sky and clean water that the locals are so proud of? Yip's answer is no. But other Heyuan residents disagree. Yip says that businessmen need to do environmental assessment studies before they receive approval to open a factory in Heyuan. "A few months ago, I complained to Heyuan's environmental protection bureau that a school near to my factory had problems with its sewage system. The sewage was leaking to my factory," he says. "The head of the bureau personally visited the school and demanded that improvements be made." However, Heyuan residents, especially those living near to the power plant, have very different views. A 67-year-old woman who lives just about 200 metres from the plant says that the wheat stopped growing in the fields outside her house since the plant was built. Fruit also stopped growing. "There used to be two harvests in a year. Not anymore," she says. Many villagers have since abandoned their farms to look for jobs in factories and restaurants in the city centre, she adds. "When the plant was under construction, the workers told us that it would not be emitting any smoke. That was not true." The plant is located in Puqian town, only about 20km away from Heyuan city centre. Ordinary Heyuan residents are not alone in their fight against the power plant expansion. Liu Dongbin, a CPPCC member of Heyuan, says that the city recorded only 129 days in the first 11 months of last year when the air quality was considered to be "excellent". But back in 2011, the air quality was considered "excellent" every day of the year, Liu was quoted by Xinhuanet as saying. He says the first phase of the power plant has already done so much harm to the environment and he fears the impact would be much greater if the second phase were to go ahead. The plant has already emitted about 30,000 tons of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide since it came into operation, Liu says. According to information on the web site of Hopewell Holdings, the power plant is "one of the province's most efficient and environmentally friendly coal-fired power plants". It "was also the first in China to be equipped with a flue gas desulphurisation wastewater treatment system". A Hopewell Holdings spokeswoman said the company would not comment. She also refused to pass any inquiries to Shenzhen Energy Hopewell Power (Heyuan). Phone calls and emails to Shenzhen Hopewell Power went unanswered. When reached by phone, a Heyuan city office employee told the Post to contact the propaganda office instead, which also did not reply to inquiries. Hong Kong's Water Supplies Department said that from information provided by the Guangdong authorities about the power plant, the Heyuan power plant "will be taken forward in compliance with the national standards with no significant impact on the [Dongjiang] water quality". A spokesman said in a detailed reply that the Guangdong authorities attached great importance to the protection of Dongjiang water and had been implementing a series of works to improve facilities for monitoring the quantity and quality of the water. Those works include relocation of the intake point of the water supply to Hong Kong; commissioning of a bio-nitrification plant at Shenzhen Reservoir; and the implementation of various sewage diversion and interception projects. Guangdong and Hong Kong hold regular meetings to discuss the quality of the Dongjiang water, the department spokesman said. "The WSD also closely monitors the quality of [Dongjiang] water through an online water quality monitoring system set up at Muk Wu Pumping Station around the clock and takes [Dongjiang] water samples for testing regularly," he said. Test results have shown that the quality has been consistently good. "In the event of any major incident affecting the quality of [Dongjiang] water delivered to Hong Kong, the designated liaison officers of Guangdong will immediately notify the designated liaison officers of the WSD by phone and will subsequently provide detailed information under the notification mechanism agreed by the two sides," he said.