Brandishing rice stems, guavas, cucumbers and other crops, close to 100 farmers from Changhua County yesterday gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei to protest against a water diversion construction project in the fourth-phase expansion of the Central Taiwan Science Park.
“The science park is robbing us of water. Stop the construction at once,” the farmers shouted.
“We cannot stand the increase in electricity prices. We are very hungry,” they said, adding that as irrigation water is diverted from farmers to supply the science park, farmers would face even more difficult conditions.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“We are not against the science park per se. We are against the water being stolen from us,” farmers from the county’s Sijhou Township (溪洲) said.
“How are we farmers supposed to survive if the science park steals our irrigation water?” they said.
Some artists and writers also joined the farmers to express their support, including folk singer Chen Ming-chang (陳明章) and writers Chu Tien-hsin (朱天心) and Wu Yin-ning (吳音寧).
“Sorry we are a little late, but I believe you [farmers] will not have to fight alone anymore,” Chu said, adding that even the Water Resources Agency knows it is inappropriate to divert agricultural-use water for industrial usage.
It did not make sense for the National Science Council to continue insisting on taking water from farmers, Chu said.
Wu said irrigation water in the nearby towns has been insufficient for more than 10 years, so the decisionmakers in government should stop bullying farmers and undervaluing the importance of water to farming, and refrain from robbing them of water.
A self-help association against the construction project said more than 100 artists and writers had signed a petition in just a few days in support of stopping the water supply diversion at the science park.
The association also urged the government to halt construction at the park and to re-evaluate the country’s agricultural policies to protect farmland and water resources.
POLAM KOPITIAM CASE: Of the two people still in hospital, one has undergone a liver transplant and is improving, while the other is being evaluated for a liver transplant A fourth person has died from bongkrek acid poisoning linked to the Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said yesterday, as two other people remain seriously ill in hospital. The first death was reported on March 24. The man had been 39 years old and had eaten at the restaurant on March 22. As more cases of suspected food poisoning involving people who had eaten at the restaurant were reported by hospitals on March 26, the ministry and the Taipei Department of Health launched an investigation. The Food and
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner