'Surf and turf' protest in Spain against factory, mine / Photo: MIGUEL RIOPA - AFP
NYSE - LSE
| RBGPF | -3.73% | 75.65 | $ | |
| RYCEF | -0.34% | 14.91 | $ | |
| CMSC | -1.05% | 23.83 | $ | |
| SCS | -0.83% | 15.62 | $ | |
| NGG | 0.08% | 78.09 | $ | |
| RIO | -0.1% | 71.04 | $ | |
| BTI | -2.46% | 54.48 | $ | |
| RELX | 0.14% | 41.42 | $ | |
| BP | -1.01% | 36.49 | $ | |
| GSK | 0.15% | 48.14 | $ | |
| CMSD | -1.4% | 24.21 | $ | |
| AZN | 1.05% | 88.61 | $ | |
| VOD | 0.32% | 12.41 | $ | |
| JRI | -0.73% | 13.77 | $ | |
| BCE | 1.47% | 23.11 | $ | |
| BCC | -1.59% | 69.18 | $ |
'Surf and turf' protest in Spain against factory, mine
Thousands of people on boats and on land staged a "surf and turf" protest in northwest Spain on Saturday against a planned textile factory and the reopening of a copper mine.
Protesters in the coastal city of A Pobra do Caraminal, in Spain's Galicia region, decried what they said were the environmental risks posed by both facilities.
Organisers -- who termed the rally a "surf and turf" protest -- said they had suspicions about the plans by Portuguese company Altri to build a factory to make lyocell, a semi-synthetic textile.
They said they feared it was just cover to build a cellulose plant that would pollute the region's Ulloa River and its Arousa Estuary.
The site of the factory is in Palas de Rei, close to a section of the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage route used by hundreds of thousands of people every year.
The organisers -- calling themselves the Platform for the Defence of the Arousa Estuary -- said they also opposed the planned reopening of an open-cast copper mine in Touro, just east of the city of Santiago de Compostela. The mine was closed in 1986.
Manoel Santos, a regional representative for Greenpeace, said the Altri textile factory "could spell the death of the Arousa Estuary".
Galicia's regional government has declared the factory to be ecologically viable.
A spokeswoman for Greenfiber, Altri's subsidiary in charge of the project, denied any pollution risk. She told Galician public television that the factory "scrupulously respects all EU environmental rules".
E.Werner--SbgTB
