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.
RSS