Legislators yesterday accused the Environmental Protection Admini-stration (EPA) of wasting taxpayers' money, saying that at least NT$16 billion would be lost if the EPA's waste incinerator policy were to be carried out.
At a meeting convened by the Sanitation and Environment Committee and the Social Welfare Committee, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsu Chung-hsiung (徐中雄) said it was unnecessary to build more incinerators, because only 70 percent of the total capacity of the existing incinerators is being used. The EPA should promote regional cooperation on waste management, rather than building more incinerators, Hsu said.
EPA head Chang Juu-en (
"It's a reasonable revision, because we can't expect waste to just disappear. We have no choice but to manage it," Chang said.
At the meeting, the EPA's policy came under fire from legislators belonging to diverse political parties, including the Democratic Progressive Party's Eugene Jao (
The EPA has been refusing to cancel incinerator projects for years, claiming that contractors would have to be compensated for their losses, but a recent report of the Legislative Yuan's Sustainable Development Committee suggests that this would not really save taxpayers' money.
According to the report, the total cost of seven planned incinerators is about NT$27 billion, which includes the construction and operational costs for 20 years. If these projects were cancelled, the total financial loss would be about NT$10.8 billion, including NT$3.8 billion compensation to contractors and NT$7 billion operation fees for handling the waste for 20 years.
Legislators are planning to officially freeze the NT$3.04 billion budget proposed by the EPA for three months at a meeting on Wednesday. The budget is for the EPA to manage incinerator-related affairs next year.
Chang said that insufficient incinerator capacity would lead to overuse of landfills, which would increase the risk of groundwater contamination.
"Potential environmental risks can't be quantified in terms of money," Chang said.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
RSS