The Council of Agriculture (COA) and the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) met yesterday to discuss details of compensation to farmers suffering losses due to farmland pollution by heavy metals, according to a council official.
The official said that farmers are entitled to demand compensation from the government for heavy metal-contaminated farmland. However, the authorities concerned, including the council and the EPA, have different views about sharing the responsibilities.
In a soil sample investigation conducted late last year, the government found that more than 1,000 hectares of land around the nation were contaminated with one or more of eight kinds of heavy metals -- arsenic, mercury, copper, zinc, lead, nickel, cadmium and chromium.
In recent months, several cases of cadmium-contaminated rice paddies have been reported in southern Taiwan.
Every year the council receives more than 1,000 appeals from farmers because of pollution of arable land, according to the COA official.
Environmental protection authorities have pointed out that in addition to heavy metals, chemicals and detergents in factory wastewater are major pollutants of ground water.
An EPA official said that most of the rivers in southern Taiwan are seriously polluted. Wastewater from households and hog-raising farms is a major cause of river pollution.
The council and the EPA have worked out plans to help those who raise hogs to process hog excretion, as well as to provide incentives to hog farms in water resource protection regions who are willing to give up their trade.
Statistics compiled by the agricultural authorities indicate that the number of hog farms around Taiwan has continued to decline over the past years.
As of the end of last year, there were some 13,000 hog farms around the nation, responsible for raising a total of 7.1 million hogs.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai