Ordinary people are increasingly bold about getting involved in environmental activism in China. Moreover, Guangdong Province is at the forefront of this phenomenon.

10,000 people took to the streets of Shiling township in Guangzhou’s Huadu District on Monday to protest against the construction of a refuse incinerator, South China Morning Post reported.

The protestors in Shiling, courtesy of Google Images

The paper has more:

“We are all very upset. The incinerator is only 500 metres from my home. I have two children and I don’t want them to develop health problems in a few years,” said a 33-year-old father of two who grew up in Qianjin, which he said has about 500 residents. “Over half of the world’s handbags are made here – Shiling is polluted enough and can’t handle an incinerator.”

The protest organiser, a 45-year-old who declined to be named, said the demonstration was discussed with Shiling officials last week. “We will give them a few days to address our concerns, but if there is no reply, we will head to Huadu district authorities and eventually the Guangzhou city government,” he said.

The protestors can draw encouragement from the success of the hundreds of Jiangmen residents who demonstrated against the building of a uranium processing plant in Heshan. As Beijing Cream put it: environmental protests have been uncannily successful in the past year.

Locals in Huizhou’s Daya Bay are also unimpressed by claims made by China’s largest offshore energy producer CNOOC and local officials that a massive fish die-off near the bay had been caused by ‘seasonal oceanic currents.’

Dead eels wash up on a beach at Daya Bay, courtesy of South China Morning Post

CNOOC’s Huizhou refinery started processing crude oil from the Bohai Sea in 2009. It is currently undergoing expansion to increase production to 24 million barrels per day, from 12 million barrels and locals are worried about air and waste water emissions from the refinery, South China Morning Post reports.

Concerns have also been raised over emissions from the nearby Daya Bay nuclear power plant.

There’s a long way to go yet, in spite of the various successes.