President López Obrador said Sunday an investigation will determine whether a fertilizer plant in Sinaloa will “harm or benefit citizens,” but he will leave the final decision on the matter to a public consultation.

The president visited Los Mochis, Sinaloa, where he was greeted by hundreds of people protesting the construction of what the previous federal government described as the “most modern fertilizer plant in the world.”

“We have to analyze this, because in issues like this there are always many interests; I was not born yesterday . . . ” he said.

Construction of the US $5-billion plant in Topolobampo began in August last year, just over a year after the federal environmental protection agency reversed an earlier ruling to shut it down.

Three months later, work on the site was suspended by a judge after the Yoreme people living in the region accused the developers of neglecting to consult and inform them about the project, as mandated by law.

In March, a federal judge issued another suspension order over possible effects of the plant on the Santa María, Topolobampo and Ohuira lagoons.

The company building the plant, Gas y Petroquímica de Occidente (GPO), insists that it has complied with all the requirements of the law. It would produce 770,000 tonnes of ammonia and 700,000 tonnes of urea per year for the domestic market.

Source: El Universal (sp)