Activists to step onto global stage

Although the Sunny Friend Environmental Technology Co Ltd (日友公司), which operates the incinerator, promised to relocate the fly ash and bottom ash by October, residents doubt the claim and say the government has neglected its duties to ensure environmental safety.

Most people living in Meinung are Hakka. Before they shifted their focus to the anti-incinerator movement in 2000, activists had spent almost a decade fighting construction of a reservoir near the township.

As early as 1992, academics and environmentalists met to discuss the main reasons why the dam should not be built. They concluded that the only benefits of the dam would be to industry and not to the residents who would have to live in its shadow.

They also produced research from engineers conducted during the Japanese occupation who found that geological conditions -- such as nearby faults and surrounding shale and sandstone formations -- made the site unsuitable for a reservoir.

Meinung activists' anger eased on Aug. 5, 2000, when then newly elected President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said that the controversial dam would not be built during his presidency.

Chung Ming-kuang (鍾明光) of the Meinung People's Association (美濃愛鄉協進會), who will attend the Civil Society Global Forum in late August, said that too many development projects in Taiwan were being carried out without environmental-impact assessments being conducted.

At the forum, representatives of the association will share their experience of rallying local residents to resist questionable construction, Chung said.

"It's time for us to link our community-based movement and our counterparts at global level," Chung said.