Residents of Chichi Township (
The NT$4 billion incinerator project was the second ecological project, after the Taipei-Ilan Freeway which involved Pinglin Township, to go under a referendum by the local residents.
Among the 6,477 votes cast, 6,340 votes (97.8 percent) were against the project, while only 90 (1.3 percent) were for the project. There were also 47 invalid votes.
PHOTO: CHU CHUN-YEN, TAIPEI TIMES
The Chichi referendum was held by the local Chichi Environmental Protection Association. Residents who have reached 20 years of age and registered with the Chichi town office as local citizens were allowed to vote on the issue. There were 9,419 qualified voters, of which 6,477 cast their votes.
Although the referendum does not have a legal effect right now, Chichi residents said that if the government insisted on building the incinerator, they would fight to the bitter end. They said they might choose to shut down the town on an appointed day and travel to the Executive Yuan to appeal their case.
"The opinions of the local residents will be respected and I will deliver the referendum result to the incinerator project's evaluation committee," said Nantou Mayor Lin Tsung-nan (
The Chichi incinerator project was initiated by the Nantou county government in accordance with the Environment Protection Administration's policy of one incinerator per city or county. The land, construction and operation would all be provided by private companies.
The deadline for the bidding on the Nantou project is the end of this month and, so far, only one private company has conditionally passed an environmental impact survey.
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