The shelved construction of the Tambei Expressway [Tamsui-Taipei Expressway] became the focus of debate in the legislature yesterday.
The expressway, part of plans to expand Provincial Highway 2 in Tamsui Township (淡水), Taipei County, was rejected by the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) last year.
During a question-and-answer session with Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Minister Steven Shen (沈世宏), Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) said: “To alleviate congestion along Provincial Highway 2, we are going to expand it. We will inevitably have to build an alternative route during the construction period … As the project was rejected by the EPA last year, I would like to ask you where you stand on the issue.”
As a resident who lives in front of some of the mangroves, Wu said he sees the vegetation was covering a larger area.
“The mangroves are inching further toward land, so people increasingly have to withdraw inland,” he said. “Yet we are protecting the mangroves like they’re a national treasure.”
Shen responded by saying that if the expressway proposal was to be resubmitted, it would need to go through another environmental impact assessment.
At a separate meeting, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said Wu’s comments were “ridiculous.”
“Legislator Wu made the comments because he has no idea what mangroves and their ecosystem mean to Taiwan,” Lin said.
Mangroves growing along the Tamsui River are natural wonders because they are usually found in tropical areas, and hardly ever at such high latitudes as Taiwan, Lin said.
“Wu is ignorant of the biodiversity that is harbored in mangroves and how the human invasion has jeopardized their survival,” Lin said.
“The extinction of many species has been caused by the stupidity of humans. This is the consensus of the global environmental protection movement. Even if Wu has no knowledge of this, he should at least have common sense,” she said.
The expressway project was “tailor-made” for construction companies hoping to develop real estate in Tamsui, Lin said.
“Rows of new apartment buildings are built there, mostly empty with no buyers, so of course the construction companies want new roads there to help them sell apartments … However, Tamsui should not have been so heavily developed in the first place,” she said.
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