A collection of 30 articles documenting the Meinung anti-dam movement was released to the public on Saturday, providing an account of a 10-year opposition campaign against the Meinung Dam (
Meinung anti-dam activists, however, said they plan to shift their focus to an incinerator operating in Meinung township, Kaohsiung County. The activists called the incinerator's operation "questionable."
The collection's release comes on the heels of President Chen Shui-bian's (
The collection of 30 articles was written by local and foreign authors covering a range perspectives on the dam issue -- from political economy, ecological and cultural preservation, sustainable development of water resources, to the justice of the policymaking process.
Meinung anti-dam activists said that the collection was just part of the picture chronicling their 10-year fight against the dam.
"Because of the proposed dam project, some Meinung residents got together to dedicate ourselves to the movement, especially young intellectuals," said Sung Yung-sung (
Sung added that the dedication of young people opposed to the dam was in evidence in the collection.
The battle over the Meinung Dam began in the early 1990s, when the then-KMT-dominated central government planned the project in order to meet the water demand of the proposed Pinnan Industrial Complex in Tainan County.
Demonstrating numerous times in front of the Legislative Yuan, anti-dam activists argued that the project would risk the lives of Meinung residents in order to support industrial polluters, such as steelmakers.
In their research, activists translated research papers to illustrate the global trend against dams.
Their translations told of the experiences of countries such as Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, the US and the UK -- all of which had shelved plans for dam projects.
"President Chen's promise on Aug. 5 has shown that [Meinung activists] have done the right thing," said Chang Cheng-yang (
The release of the collection was one of the activities of the 2000 Yellow Butterfly Festival in Meinung, held on Friday and Saturday in Meinung township.
In the past five years, the annual festival has drawn more than 13,000 people who are concerned about the future of the Yellow Butterfly Valley (
Now that the dam issue has been put to rest, at least for the moment, activists have turned their attention to other environmental concerns.
"We Meinung anti-dam villagers used both will and knowledge to resist the proposed dam, and now it's time for us to shift our focus to other injustices, such as the illegal operation of the Meinung incinerator," said Wu Chi-tsung (
Since Aug. 3, dozens of residents have camped out in tents outside the plant to protest its operation, but the incinerator's owner and Kaohsiung County officials have refused to budge on the issue.
Protesters, mostly farmers who live by planting fruits trees near the incinerator, say they suspect that polluted air emitted from the plant is damaging their crops, and they refuse to quit until the plant is shut down.
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