Print

Mail

wiki links

TWC uses asbestos water pipes: mayor

Members of environmental groups protest outside the Taichung City Council yesterday, criticizing the Taichung City Government's failure to stop the Taiwan Water Corp from providing tap water via asbestos pipes. PHOTO: CNA

Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said he would sue the Taiwan Water Corp (TWC) for allegedly hiding the fact that the company uses asbestos water pipes, which are carcinogenic, to provide tapwater.

Hu made the remarks in response to a report in the Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily, which said that while the TWC has removed almost all of its asbestos water pipes, it and the Taichung City Government had delayed the removal of the last two asbestos pipes, which run through downtown Taichung and provide tapwater for about 150,000 people.

"The TWC did apply to remove the old water pipes, but it did not tell the city government and the public that the pipes were made from asbestos, which causes cancer. The TWC may have violated the Law of Public Safety (公共危險罪)," Hu said at a city council meeting yesterday.

Seizing the opportunity, Democ-ratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taichung City mayoral candidate Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday attacked Hu and the city government for ignoring Taichung residents' health.

"I and DPP city councilors asked the city government to immediately remove these harmful pipes. Before new pipes are completed, the city government must provide clean drinking water to citizens who rely on the asbestos pipes," Lin said at a press conference.

The Cabinet's Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in 1989 listed asbestos as a pois-onous chemical, and prohibited the TWC from using water pipes made with the material. In 1993, the EPA asked the TWC to remove all asbestos water pipes.

DPP City Councilor Ho Ming-cheng (何敏誠) yesterday said the TWC last October applied to the city government to remove the asbestos pipes, and has paid NT$26 million (US$776,000) in construction fees to the city government, but it has delayed the removal project.

Ho said that the city government delayed the project because it said the total construction fee is NT$32 million, and the TWC has not completed payment.

The city government also proposed laying cable wires alongside the new water pipes later in the year, so it wanted to complete the two projects at the same time, he said.

Noting that Hu is himself a TWC board member, Ho called on Hu not to shift blame onto others.

Hu responded that he was shocked to learn yesterday that Taichung City still has asbestos water pipes, and he was angry that the TWC "hid" the information.

The two asbestos pipes are 4km long in total. They lay along Taichung Port Road, around an area full of department stores and hotels, and along Jingming Bus-iness Circle (精明商圈).

Meanwhile, in other developments, KMT Legislator Lin Cheng-fong (林政峰) in Taipei yesterday raised the issue of water shortages in Taoyuan whenever there was a typhoon, because of problems with the Shihmen Reservoir.

"The irony is that whenever there is a flood there is a water shortage," he said at a press conference held to address the issue.

According to Lin, Shihmen Reservoir was originally intended for irrigation purposes, meaning that the design didn't meet the standards for civilian use.

This, in addition to an accumul-ation of silt, means that in the event of a typhoon, the water becomes very muddy. After Typhoon Aere last year, water supplies didn't return to normal until 19 days after the storm.

Lin yesterday outlined a proposal for the restoration of Shihmen Reservoir, which will cost NT$25 billion over 6 years and is aimed at cleaning up the upstream water resource area, installing a filtering system for the dam and cleaning up the silt in the river.

Additional reporting by Jenny Chou
This story has been viewed 2390 times.