Sawt Falasteen - 'Surf and turf' protest in Spain against factory, 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".

M.AlAhmad--SF-PST