China Waste Water Protests May Spread to Other Cities

A map of the area in question. Runoff waste containing dioxins, which are toxic to humans, comes from the Oji Paper Factory, located in Nantong. The proposed pipeline would have gone from there to the Lüsi Port near Qidong - though it was cancelled after recent protests. Activists now say the wastewater is flowing from the factory towards the Shanghai Qingcaosha water reservoir, which services millions of people in the city. Diana Hubert/The Epoch Times

A massive protest that recently resulted in the shutdown of a pipeline project in eastern China could gain momentum in coming days if more citizens join in as promised online.

Tens of thousands of locals gathered outside the Qidong municipal government building on July 28 to stop the construction of a waste pipeline for a paper manufacturing company. Residents said it would have polluted the estuary used for Qidong’s aquaculture. The angry mob at one stage ransacked the government building and ripped the shirt off the city mayor. The protest was ultimately successful after the Qidong police announced that the local government would cancel the project.

The company has already discharged waste into the Yangtze River as early as January last year, according to a post by Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbum on Sina Weibo. The post was later deleted after it had been forwarded about 3,500 times. 

That information was not widely known before then, according to netizens--and Chinese seem incensed by the matter.