The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office yesterday indicted 22 people -- from Eternal Chemical Company
The dumping left the greater Kaohsiung area without potable water for five days. Water quality has been restored to acceptable levels, but when polluted water resources and the soil can be completely cleaned up remains a big question. But while the toxic pollutants may be gone from the river, they have not disappeared. They will continue to harm marine life as they disperse in the sea. They will lurk in the food chain and continue to harm living beings. This "hidden" danger is the most terrifying part of pollution.
Taiwan faces many public hygiene problems caused by serious environmental degredation, from illnesses caused by air pollution rates to the rising number of deaths from cancer. Pollution is a problem Taiwan can no longer afford to postpone resolving. Everyone knows that Taiwan's environment has deteriorated -- they can feel it in the air, taste it in the water and in the food. But the government has done little to protect the environment because economic development has always been the top priority.
There is an Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), but it has been dwarfed and outgunned by the powerful Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) ever since it was established. The EPA has been the daughter-in-law who must keep her mouth shut in order to avoid causing family woes -- scaring off investors and affecting economic growth. Strict environmental regulations have been enacted, but enforcement has been loose. Now, backed up by the judiciary, the EPA has a chance to deal squarely with Taiwan's pollution problems.
It is easy to create waste but difficult to dispose of it. Proper waste treatment requires high-tech facilities, which can be built only with the cooperation or appeasement of area residents. Therefore, much of the industrial waste produced in Taiwan is dumped at random, with the help of powerful local politicians and organized crime groups. Such dumping simply passes the buck -- of waste treatment costs -- on to the society as a whole, forcing the populace to endure the consequences.
As Taiwan has developed and grown richer, its people have begun demanding higher environmental standards. Waste treatment is becoming more difficult and costly. Cases, such as Formosa Plastic Group's mercury-tainted waste that was dumped in Cambodia and then returned home, Taipower's difficulties in finding a home for its nuclear waste, and now Eternal Chemical, have all helped raised public awareness about the seriousness of pollution. They will also help Taiwan accelerate its industrial life cycle and discard high-pollution industries.
The decision to prosecute Eternal Chemical and the heavy punishments demanded by prosecutors are a major landmark in Taiwan's history of environmental protection. We hope the case will help awaken an environmental awareness among the populace, force industry to handle waste more meticulously and prompt the EPA to be stricter in enforcing environmental regulations. We hope the case will lead to a better environment for the land once known far and wide as "Ihla Formosa" -- Beautiful Island.
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