Anti-dam protesters from central and southern Taiwan yesterday urged the government to stop all work on new reservoirs in their hometowns, saying construction would cause irreversible damage to the local ecosystem.
“What we are asking from the government is the chance to survive. All we want to do is protect our homeland and families from flooding and other catastrophes,” said Lai Mei-ching (賴美清), a longtime resident of Jianshih Township (尖石) in Hsinchu County and a member of the Atayal tribe.
Lai said the government's plan to build Bilin Reservoir (比麟水庫) and Kaotai Reservoir (高台水庫) means that more than 5,000 villagers, including her family, would be forcibly relocated.
PHOTO: CNA
She said construction would also have a negative impact on the local landscape.
In addition, she said, local residents would not reap any benefit from the two reservoirs because they would cater only to the water needs of the Hsinchu Science Park.
Anti-Pingsi Dam Alliance president Lin Seng-jen (林森仁) said the government would not need to spend billions of dollars building dams if it fixed other problems, such as leakage.
Lin said the global average of water loss between reservoirs and household taps was 18 percent. However, in Taiwan, this was significantly higher at 22 percent. Keelung City, in particular, suffers a loss of about 37 percent.
If the water company spent a fraction of the money intended for these projects fixing the leakage problem, it would not have to construct a dam that will put local residents at risk of flooding and mudslides if another storm like Typhoon Morakot — which killed more than 500 people in the south Taiwan last August — hits the nation, he said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS