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Environmental justice to be promoted on Earth Day

Several unsolved problems involving environmental justice in different parts of Taiwan will be highlighted in Taipei later this month in a bid to galvanize the central government into action, the Taipei Times learned from environmentalists yesterday.

Yesterday in Tainan City, where a preparatory meeting was held for the 2nd National NGO Conference -- scheduled to be held in Taipei on Earth Day, April 22 -- dozens of villagers in Dongshan Township, Tainan County, distributed thousands of flyers stating their opposition to a recently completed industrial-waste landfill in their hometown.

At the meeting, representatives of the township expressed their concerns over the potential pollution of the nearby Wushantou Reservoir (烏山頭水庫), one of the main sources of irrigation and drinking water in southern Taiwan.

According to Chen Hsien-mao (陳顯茂), a representative of the Dongshan Township Self-Help Association, plans for the landfill project were processed without consulting residents.

"An operating license should never be issued to a project if residents' questions and concerns are not responsibly and satisfactorily answered by the government," Chen said.

Residents of Dongshan are also angered by not only this project, but also plans for an even bigger landfill for industrial waste. The sites cover 9.2 hectares and 18 hectares, respectively. The smaller site has already been completed.

Chen said that the government's geological information shows that the two sites are located less than 200m from the reservoir.

"If water in the reservoir gets polluted, the livelihood of most villagers, who grow different types of fruits, might be negatively affected," Chen said.

Due to persistent opposition from residents, the operating license has not yet been issued to the operator by the local government. Chen said prosecutors are still investigating the matter because of inappropriate administrative procedures concerning the two projects had been discovered. Last December, Dongshan villagers boycotted the legislative elections to show their discontent of lawmakers they elected in the previous elections. It turned out that only 14 percent of voters cast their ballots.

"We bring up the controversial issue today in Tainan in a bid to have it discussed further at the national conference in Taipei. High-ranking officials should take unsolved local issues seriously into account," Chen said.

The 2nd National NGO Conference will be jointly held by various civic groups seeking to address issues of environmental protection and ecological conservation. Last Saturday, at another preparatory meeting held in northern Taiwan, activists have decided to release a list of environment-unfriendly industrial developers in Taiwan on April 22 to highlight the government's failure to prevent development projects that jeopardize the nation's environmental sustainability.

Wu Tung-chieh (吳東傑), general director of the Green Formosa Front, said that different controversial environmental issues reflect the same governance problems. Controversial issues around another industrial landfill project in Taipei County, as well as the Suao-Hualien freeway project (which costs NT$96.2 billion), the Hushan Reservoir project in Yunlin County and others are similar in nature.
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