A collective appeal by a group of villagers to the government of Zhenhai district in Ningbo city, Zhejiang province, to remove an industrial project from their village was not actually spurred by the chemical project itself, but by their anger at the lack of information.

The new project plans to produce paraxylene, or PX, a highly polluting, potentially carcinogenic petrochemical used to make purified terephthalic acid, a raw material that is needed to produce polyester film, packaging resin and fabrics. Some research suggested that there is not enough evidence to link the substance with cancers.

A petrochemical refinery factory in Zhenhai, which was built in 1975, processes about 21 million tons of crude oil each year. The new PX project plans to refine 15 million tons of crude oil every year.

The villagers' discontent partly originated from the compensation schedule proposed by the local government for the removal from their homes, because the land will be used for other purposes.

But the PX project mainly triggered the villagers' anger because the local government did not communicate with people effectively about both the removal project and the PX plant.

Authorities possessed all the information relevant to the villagers' interests. But the villagers were left in the dark when they were hungry for information that concerned their future and their health.

So the local government should draw lessons from the incident and establish effective communication channels with the villagers in order to respect their right to access the information.

After getting the information they want, the villagers will be more certain about their future and their suspicions will be dispelled.

Translated from Beijing News Daily By Li Yang