Green policies need beefing up

Experts said that pollution and environmental degradation had reached dangerous levels and warned the government yesterday to strengthen policies to clean up the water and air in Taiwan and regulate incinerators.

At a press conference yesterday held by the Health, Welfare, and Environment Foundation (HWE Foundation, 厚生基金會), activists and scientists said that the government's neglect of environmental protection has created severe degradation of the local environment and that heavy pollution has contributed to higher levels of stress for people.

According to a report by Ouyang Chiao-fuei (歐陽嶠暉), an environmental engineering professor from National Central University, Taiwan has been bearing much heavier environmental burdens -- dubbed "eco-costs" -- than industrialized countries.

Ouyang also said that the growing population in Taiwan will only make the situation worse. Ouyang said that by 2035, the population will have increased by 20 percent, to 26 million people.

"While natural resources have been overused, we have not seen sufficient public facilities regarding environmental protection, such as sound waste water drainage networks," Ouyang said.

Ouyang said several existing environmental problems can be attributed to inadequate policies, noting that 30 percent of Taiwan's tap-water is sub-standard and 30 percent of urban waste and 70 percent of industrial waste treated improperly.

Scientists from the Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering of National Taiwan University said that the government needs to rewrite policies based on the concept of preserving state-owned land.

"We see landslides caused by over-planting and over-development in mountainous areas, while land in plains areas is polluted by toxic waste," said Shang-Lien Lo (駱尚廉), a professor from the institute. He said there was a lack of respect for the land people live on.

Lo added that coastal land is also disappearing because of development.

In addition to the preservation of nationally-owned land, public health experts attending the conference stressed that dealing with toxic chemicals accumulated in the environment should be a priority for the government.

"The government tends to deal first with toxic chemicals that cause acute illnesses. However, it takes time to see cancers induced by persistent organic pollutants [POPs] such as dioxin," said Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權), a professor of public health professor at National Taiwan University.

Chan urged the government to make a comprehensive health risk assessment for residents living near incinerators and said existing policies regulating incinerators are irresponsible in their lack of strict guidelines for limiting chemical substance emissions and measuring substances in the area surrounding the site.

"In addition, it's necessary to establish the real-time monitoring of the concentration of mercury during combustion, which is an index of the concentration of dioxin," Chan said.

Chan pointed out that the clean-up of accumulated POPs should not be ignored, adding that massive quantities of DDT had been left by the US military from the time they used it as a pesticide to control malaria in the 1960s.

Responding to experts, officials from the Environmental Protection Administration said yesterday that several essential laws had been delayed in the Legislative Yuan, including the Fundamental Environmental Law (環境基本法), the guideline for making environmental protection policies.