Dozens of protesters and residents from Taichung yesterday staged a protest in Taipei against a Taichung City Government development proposal, saying it would increase pollution levels and destroy hundreds of hectares of farmland.
Ahead of a meeting at the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in Taipei, in which Taichung city officials consulted with interested parties and the agency’s strategic environmental assessment committee about the proposal, protesters said the plan would damage the environment.
The proposal — drafted in 2013 — would see 4,618 hectares in the city designated as industrial parks, free-trade areas or urban renewal projects, but protesters said the developments would worsen the city’s chronic problem with air pollution.
Photo: Yang Chin-chieh, Taipei Times
“The highest monthly air pollution level last year was recorded at Tunghai University in the city’s Situn District (西屯), because it is near the Taichung Power Plant, a steelmaking plant, industrial parks and incinerators. The new development plan would only aggravate pollution and expose residents to the risk of lung cancer,” Dadu Mountain Society president Wu Chin-shu (吳金樹) said.
The proposal would also encourage property speculation, as it would entail the development of farmland, they said.
According to a Construction and Planning Agency estimate, Taichung only needs an extra 420 hectares of land to develop its industries, but the city government plans to zone a total of 4,618 hectares, which is disproportionate, Wu said.
The city’s plan would legalize illegal factories occupying agricultural land by converting farmland into industrial areas, Wu said.
Taichung-based environmental activist Kung Wen-chou (龔文周) said the plan was “a massive land grab” that would cost the city a significant area of agricultural land.
“The city plans to allocate 1,824 hectares of farmland to development projects, based on predicted economic growth and population growth. However, the government’s prediction might be wrong considering the city’s population is aging, its economy is slowing and unemployment is rising,” Kung said.
“The average occupancy rate of industrial parks in the city is 68.75 percent, but instead of trying to boost this unsatisfactory occupancy rate, the city government is looking to acquire more land for development. The proposal might simply be an excuse for property speculation,” he said.
“The nation’s self-sufficiency ratio in food is only about 30 percent, but the city government continues to fragment farmland without fully utilizing existing industrial parks. We cannot tolerate a government with such misplaced priorities,” Homemakers United Foundation Taichung Office director Hsieh Wen-chi (謝文綺) said.
Taichung City Government officials said the city’s population is growing, and the government would ensure farmland protection despite plans to expand development areas.
EPA Deputy Minister Thomas Chan (詹順貴) said the proposal is ambitious, but lacks practical solutions to the problem of pollution.
Formal assessments of the policy cannot be conducted until the city government has proposed pollution management measures, development projections and overall resource management plans, the EPA committee said.
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