Indian copper plant shut down days after deadly protests
致命抗議事件發生後，印度銅廠關閉
Environmental campaigners claim victory over British-owned smelter in Tamil Nadu
環保人士聲稱，泰米爾納德邦市民擊敗了英國冶煉廠。
Government officials seal the gates of the Sterlite copper plant in Thoothukudi. Photograph: Reuters
A British-owned copper smelting plant in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu that has been blamed for unnaturally high cancer rates in surrounding villages has closed, days after 13 people were killed by police during protests against the facility.
在印度南部的泰米爾納德邦，一家英國銅冶煉廠被認為是導致周邊村莊癌症率升高的罪魁禍首。此前，有13人在反對該設施的抗議活動中被警察打死，現已經關閉。
The Tamil Nadu chief minister, Edappadi K Palaniswami, has ordered environmental authorities to “seal the unit and close the plant permanently”, after a 22-year campaign by environmentalists and residents against the site, owned by London-based Vedanta Resources.
泰米爾納德邦首席部長Edappadi K Palaniswami已下令環保部門“封存該裝置，並永久關閉工廠”。此前，環保人士和居民對地點發起了長達22年的抗議活動，該廠由倫敦的韋丹塔資源公司所有。
Monday’s decision sparked celebrations in villages around the Sterlite copper plant, including in Kumarareddyapuram, where residents have complained for years of breathing and skin problems and cancer symptoms.
週一的這一決定引發了斯特利特銅廠周圍村莊的慶祝活動，其中包括庫馬拉多普拉姆，那裡的居民多年來一直抱怨呼吸和皮膚問題以及癌症症狀。
“We won, we finally won,” one tearful villager, Latha, told the Guardian. Her neighbour Ponsudha said: “I can drink the water, farm the soil without any worry and ensure that future generations of our families will not have health problems to worry about.”
“我們贏了，我們終於贏了，”一個淚流滿面的村民Latha告訴《衛報》。她的鄰居Ponsudha說:“我可以喝這些水，不用擔心就能澆灌土地，並且確保我們的後代不會有健康問題。”
A spokesman for Vedanta said the allegations were unfounded and the company strictly complied with its environmental obligations.
韋丹塔公司的一位發言人說，這些指控是沒有根據的，該公司嚴格遵守了其環境條款。
The protests had grown in intensity in the past three months after Vedanta’s subsidiary, Sterlite Copper, applied for approval to double the capacity of the plant.
在韋丹塔的子公司Sterlite Copper申請批准將該工廠的產能擴大一倍後，抗議活動在過去3個月裡變得越來越激烈。
More than two decades of protests against the facility had attracted little national attention until last week when police opened fire on protesterswhom they accused of setting cars alight, pelting stones and breaching the fences of government buildings.
過去20多年來，針對該設施的抗議活動幾乎沒有引起全國的關注，直到上週警察向抗議者開槍，他們指責抗議者點燃了汽車，投擲石塊，並破壞了政府大樓的圍牆。
Footage of a police officer scaling a bus to shoot demonstrators and other videos showing families crying over dead relatives were aired on Indian television and widely shared on social media.
一名警察駕駛公交車撞擊示威者，家人因親人死亡而哭鬧的視頻在印度電視臺播出，並在社交媒體上廣泛傳播。
The images fuelled outrage across India and internationally, including frommembers of the UK Labour party, who called for Vedanta to be delisted from the London stock exchange.
這些畫面激起了印度乃至全世界的憤怒，其中包括英國工黨成員，他們要求萬達塔從倫敦證券交易所退市。
Following the closure announcement on Monday, residents and activists gathered at the facility to watch authorities formally seal the gates, clapping and whistling as an official used a candle to apply a red seal to the lock. “You lost, we won,” one villager shouted.
週一宣佈關閉後，當地居民和活動人士聚集在該設施門口，觀看有關部門正式封鎖大門，並拍手、吹口哨，當一名官員用蠟燭在鎖上塗了一枚紅色的印章時，一個村民喊道：“你輸了，我們贏了，”。
“I am exhilarated, I am flying,” said Fatima Babu, a leader in the campaign against the plant, minutes after learning of the state government’s decision. She said the victory was a tribute to those who died last week fighting the expansion of the plant.
“我很高興，我感覺我在飛行，”在得知州政府的決定後幾分鐘，該運動的領導人Fatima Babu說。她說，這一勝利是對上週為抗擊核電站擴建而犧牲的人的致敬。
“The martyrs have done it. We have set an example to the rest of the country of how we can drive out corporates who are here in the name of development, but minting money at the expense of our lives and livelihoods,” she said. “We have written history.”
“烈士們已經做到了。我們為其他國家樹立了一個榜樣，即我們如何能以綠色發展的名義趕走這些企業，他們以犧牲我們的生活和生計為代價來賺錢，”她說。“我們將書寫歷史。”
Political pressure over the police killings appears to have been the driving force in the closure of the plant, the precise environmental impact of which remains unclear.
警察殺人的政治壓力似乎是關閉該工廠的主要動力，其對環境的確切影響尚不清楚。
A 2008 study into the health effects of the plant, which surveyed more than 80,000 residents, found the iron level in nearby groundwater was up to 20 times higher than acceptable limits. There were also higher-than-expected incidences of asthma and other respiratory conditions.
2008年對8萬多名居民的健康影響進行的一項研究發現，附近地下水的鐵含量比可接受的上限高出20倍。哮喘和其他呼吸道疾病的發病率也高於預期。
The state had repeatedly shut down the plant due to pollution complaints and Vedanta was fined £10m in 2013 for breaching environmental standards and operating without the consent of environmental authorities.
國家多次由於汙染投訴關閉工廠，Vedanta在2013年由於違反環保標準以及在沒有環保部門同意的情況下進行操作，而被處以1000萬罰款。
One resident, Nisha Valdaras, said she knew of at least three people who had died of cancer before they turned 18. “When you go to the doctor, the first thing they ask is: are you from Tuticorin?” she said.
一位名叫尼莎·瓦爾達斯的居民說，她知道至少有三個人在18歲之前死於癌症。“當你去看醫生的時候，他們會問的第一件事就是:你來自Tuticorin嗎?”她說。
Jayshree Vencatasan, a scientist and managing trustee at the Care Earth Trust, a conservation group, said Tamil Nadu lacked the technical capacity to properly monitor the impact of heavy industry. That meant neither the claims of villagers, nor the denials of Vedanta, could be properly scrutinised, she said.
環保組織“關愛地球信託”的科學家和管理受託人Jayshree Vencatasan說，泰米爾納德邦缺乏適當監測重工業影響的技術能力。她說，這既不是對村民的要求，也不是對Vedanta的否定，這是可以檢測的。
“Tuticorin is a hub of many hazardous industries,” she said. “Obviously something is wrong in the area. [But] to establish a linear relationship that Sterlite is responsible will not withstand scientific scrutiny until a long-term study is done.”
她說:“Tuticorin是許多危險行業的中心。很明顯，這一地區有問題。[但]我們要建立一個線性關係，在長期研究完成之前，斯特拉特將經不起科學的審查。
She welcomed the victory of the local campaign against the plant, but cautioned: “This is not how these issues should be handled. If it was causing problems for the local people, this should have come to light long ago. It should not have followed the death of 13 people. We need a better process.”
她對當地反對該銅廠運動的勝利表示歡迎，但告誡說:“這不是解決這些問題的方法。”如果它給當地人民帶來了問題，那麼這個問題早就應該解決了。它不應該伴隨13個人的死亡。我們需要一個更好的過程。
Vedanta said it was considering its next course of action. “[The] closure of the Sterlite Copper plant is an unfortunate development, especially since we have operated the plant for over 22 years in [a] most transparent and sustainable way, contributing to the Tuticorin and the state’s socio-economic development,” a spokesman said.
韋丹塔表示，它正在考慮下一步的行動。一位發言人說:“關閉Sterlite銅廠對發展不利，特別是因為我們已經以最透明和可持續的方式經營了這家工廠超過22年，這為Tuticorin和國家的社會經濟發展做出了貢獻。”
中英雙語呈現，還可以加強英語學習哦！
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