Beijing faces a “garbage crisis” as an increasing volume of rubbish threatens to overwhelm the capital’s existing landfills, state media reported yesterday.
The volume of waste produced in the city is growing at eight percent per year and is expected to exceed the capacity of Beijing’s 13 landfill sites within five years, the China Daily reported, citing the city government.
It quoted a municipal commission warning of a “garbage crisis” if the city does not rapidly open new landfills and waste incineration facilities, noting that two of Beijing’s dumps are already full and will soon close.
“We are working on laws and penalties to cut down garbage production in the capital and have sped up construction of new sanitary landfill sites,” the paper quoted a city spokesman as saying.
It gave no other details.
The increasing willingness of city residents to vocally oppose new landfills or waste incinerators poses an increasing difficulty for those tasked with resolving the problem, the China Daily report said.
It said the national government in March canceled construction of a controversial waste-fuel power plant in Beijing because of residents’ worries that it would pollute local aquifers.
The rapid growth of Beijing and other large cities has become an increasing worry for the nation’s planners amid fears over pollution and water supplies.
Last year the central government banned the distribution of free plastic bags at supermarkets throughout the nation.
China is building an ambitious multibillion-dollar water diversion project that will bring water from the nation’s longest river, the Yangtze in central and southern China, to parched northern areas like Beijing.
The Palauan president-elect has vowed to stand up to Chinese “bullying” in the Pacific, saying that the archipelago nation is set to stand by its alliances with “true friends,” Taiwan and the US. Surangel Whipps Jr, 52, a supermarket owner and two-time senator from a prominent Palauan family, is to be sworn in as the new president tomorrow, succeeding his brother-in-law, Tommy Remengesau Jr. In a forthright interview, Whipps said that the US had demonstrated over the years that it was a reliable friend of Palau, most recently shown by its delivery of 6,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. “It’s important for
DELIVERING HOPE: The Japanese PM pledged to push ahead with plans to stage the Games, despite polls showing about 80% think they will not or should not happen Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga yesterday vowed to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control and hold the already postponed Olympic Games this summer with ample protection. In a speech opening a new session of parliament, Suga said that his government would revise laws to make disease prevention measures enforceable with penalties and compensation. Early in the pandemic, Japan was able to keep its caseload manageable with nonbinding requests for businesses to close or operate with social distancing, and for people to stay at home, but recent weeks have seen several highs in new cases per day, in part blamed on eased attitudes
On Sunday last week, in a nondescript building in the Indian city of Gwalior, 322km south of Delhi, a large crowd of men gathered. Most wore bright saffron hats and scarves, a color evoking Hindu nationalism, and many held strands of flowers as devotional offerings. They were there to attend the inauguration of the Godse Gyan Shala, a memorial library and “knowledge center” dedicated to Nathuram Godse, the man who shot Mahatma Gandhi. The devotional yellow and pink flowers were laid around a black and white photograph of Godse, the centerpiece of the room. On Jan. 30, 1948, Godse stepped out in
CAN ‘STILL DREAM’: Lai Chi-wai said he hoped the event would send the message that people with disabilities can ‘bring about opportunity, hope’ Lai Chi-wai (黎志偉) became the first person in Hong Kong to climb more than 250m of a skyscraper while strapped into a wheelchair, as he pulled himself up for more than 10 hours on Saturday to raise money for spinal cord patients. The 37-year-old climber, whose car accident 10 years ago left him paralyzed from waist down, could not make it to the top of the 300m-tall Nina Tower on the Kowloon peninsula. “I was quite scared,” Lai said. “Climbing up a mountain, I can hold on to rocks or little holes, but with glass, all I can really rely on is