More than 200 environmental protection activists urged the Changhua County Government yesterday not to obstruct the designation of a belt of intertidal zone along the county’s west coast as a wetland of international importance.
The environmentalists from several civic groups made the call in a protest in front of Changhua County Hall against a NT$400 billion (US$13.76 billion) investment project to build a major petrochemical complex on land close to the estuary of the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪).
They demanded that Changhua County Commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) acquiesce to the Ministry of the Interior’s Construction and Planning Agency in categorizing the intertidal zone as a wetland of international importance so it will not be destroyed, said Tsai Chia-yang (蔡嘉陽), chairman of the Changhua Environmental Protection Union.
The county’s coastal areas house important fishing and agricultural industries as well as biological resources. The county should seek the sustainable development of the area instead of allowing the Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co to destroy the wetland to make way for a new plant, Tsai said.
During the protest, a scuffle broke out between activists and police when their demand to meet Cho was rejected.
The protesters did not leave until Cho’s deputy, Yang Chung (楊仲), appeared and accepted a petition from the environmentalists.
Meanwhile, also in Changhua County, more than 100 students at National Changhua High School staged a campus sit-in in protest over the Kuokuang project.
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