High-Tension Cable issue conflicting in Shanghai

Recently this is a hot topic here.

There's High-Tension Cable hanging over the CHUNSHEN urban area of Shanghai, China, the local residents did not know that when they bought the department in this area. In Aug. 2006, Shanghai electricty company announced that electricty capacity will be extended, and provided 3 options to collect the feedback from the residents. Thus the 220,000 volt High-Tension Cable will go through 9 schools and 20 living Subdistricts.
Though it's said that according to the research till now, no proof has been found that it will be harmful to people's health, the residents along the line did not feel comfortable of its existence. The cost of burying the cable into the underground can be counted, but the health is invaluable. According to the industry standard, 20m is the safe distance, currently the nearest distance between the cable to the building is 49m, 76m, from human nature, people fear of this kind of things, it's still too close. So they asked the electricity company to bury the Cable into the underground, there's already examples in other district of Shanghai that it's technically feasible, this is an improved proposal according to thrid option.
However, due to some reason, the company can't agree with this proposal, it insisted on its original proposal, with a little change -- no new high-tension corridor will be created, and existing corridor will be transformed to multi-loop or cable mode.
In Sep. 2007, it started construction without the agreement of the residents, neither had they annouced the construction start. It caused the strong disagreement of the residents, they began to call community together to fight against it, for these reasons:
1. needs to be known about the construction plan, when buying the deparment here, and now
2. public hearing will need to be held before the construction.

Their trying including:
1. legal action, by a lawyer resident.
2. collective signatures petition, letters, emails to the goverment.
3. hanging out the banners with the words "Anti High Tension" in large letters over their windows.
4. zealous demonstration

The electricty company said that the construction program is urgent and legal, but no understanding gained from the the residents. In late November, the conflictment became white-hot, the company broke into the subdistrict, hundreds of the residents met at the basketball court to show their opposition. The police was also involved.

The information was closed in local new report.

Power is necessary in our life nowadays, we can't refuse it. Personally I have no idea which one is better, over the sky or under the ground. If dear reader you by chance is an expert in this area, kindly put a comment or shout at my shout box. Thanks.

Some of my friends lived in that area, best wishes to all of them.



Note of Subdistrict:
Subdistrict is a low level administrative country subdivision. In Thailand it may refer to the king amphoe or to the tambon. For China see: subdistricts of China.
The Subdistrict is one of the smallest Political divisions of China. In general, urban areas are divided into subdistricts (街道办事处 jiēdàobànshìchù or simply 街办 jiēbàn, literally "street offices"), and a subdistrict is divided into several communities or neighbourhoods (居民区,居住区,小区,社区).