The natural environment in coastal areas near the estuary of the Choshui River (濁水溪) in central Taiwan has been deteriorating dramatically since 1993 due to the establishment of industrial complexes and fish farms, a report by scientists of the Council of Agriculture (COA) said yesterday.
Among some 150 rivers and streams in Taiwan, the 186km Choshui is the longest. It originates from the Central Range, passes through mountainous Nantou County, and reaches the sea as the boundary between Changhua and Yunlin counties.
Ecologists of the COA's Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute (TESRI) said yesterday that analysis of satellite images suggested that eco-systems in the estuary had changed dramatically over the years. These images were taken by the French space agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales between 1993 and 2001.
PHOTO: CNA
In addition, TESRI also took aerial photos of the estuary and carried out field investigation for further analysis of environmental changes.
Ecologists said that the natural environment had been damaged for years by human activities, such as building reservoirs upstream, establishing industrial parks in coastal areas, turning sandy beaches into fish farms, and constructing coastal expressways.
In addition, ecologists said, several typhoon strikes had resulted in coastal land being covered with sand after being inundated by turbid sea water.
Ecologists said the environmental deterioration was driven by both human and natural factors. Decades ago, many migrant birds wintered in coastal wetlands near the estuary and sandlots, waters and swamps were randomly distributed.
"Taiwan's early idea of building industrial parks along the coast with no ecological conservation concern deserves to be reviewed urgently," Chen Tien-shui (陳添水), an assistant researcher of TESRI's Division of Habitats and Ecosystems, told the Taipei Times.
Marine environmental experts said that it was time for Taiwan to turn unused industrial parks distributed along the west coast into artificial wetlands in order to not only restore damaged eco-systems but also to educate future generations.
According to Chiau Wen-yan (
Taking Yunlin Offshore Industrial Park (雲林離島工業區), where the Sixth Naphtha Cracker (六輕) run by Formosa Plastics Corp is located, as an example, Chiau said the huge industrial park blocked drifting sand toward the south, causing the erosion to the Waishanding sandbar (
The site of the industrial park covers more than 1,000-hectares of land reclaimed from the sea, and about 500m from the coastline.
"There's no reason for us to build so many huge artificial barriers along the coast to disturb the flow of drifting sand, cause coastal erosion, and damage natural eco-systems," Chiau said.
Chiau said that Japan had successfully transformed declining small industrial zones into artificial wetlands and some were even designated as internationally important under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands established in 1971.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)