Illegal construction on agricultural land has continued despite the Executive Yuan’s promises of a crackdown, environmental campaigners said yesterday, accusing authorities of inaction in Changhua County.
“There are still all kinds of illegal factories being constructed on agricultural land,” Citizens of the Earth researcher Wu Chi-jung (吳其融) said.
Aerial photographs of Changhua’s Lugang (鹿港) and Luan (鹿安) townships showed extensive new constructions over the past year, Wu said.
However, the group has yet to receive a response to its requests that three of the newly constructed sites be demolished, despite Minister Without Portfolio Chang Ching-sen’s (張景森) promise to tear down all illegal structures erected after President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office last year, he said.
“A demolition in Taichung last year was the sole demolition we have seen. The central government has to begin taking action if it is serious about addressing the problem,” he said.
While current zoning rules forbid almost all construction other than “farming homesteads” on agricultural land, their cheaper prices relative to industrial parks create an incentive for manufacturers to ignore the rules, Taiwan Rural Front member and Changhua resident Col Boom Fong (許文烽) said, adding that relocating manufacturing to industrial parks was important for managing pollution.
Taiwan Environmental Information Center research specialist Chang Shu-chen (張淑貞) said that the Ministry of Economic Affairs only has detailed information on about 11,000 illegal factories, compared with the Executive Yuan’s estimates of 90,0000 when it announced regulations to address the problem in 2013.
“The economics ministry estimates that about 800 new sites are constructed every year, but the rate of local government demolitions is basically zero,” she said.
“Part of the problem is factory owners lobby local councils to cut enforcement funds out of local budgets, but the central government is also culpable because it has the power to enforce the law itself if local governments fail to act,” Taiwan Watch Institute secretary-general Herlin Hsieh (謝和霖) said.
Citizens of the Earth researcher Pan Cheng-cheng (潘正正) said the central government can fine owners of illegal constructions, cut off their electricity supply and carry out demolitions.
“Right now the feeling we get is that there is collusion between the DPP [Democratic Progressive Party] central and local governments, with the central government choosing not to enforce demolitions to protect the interests of local factions,” she said.
“The central government has a lot of ways to control what local governments do, beginning with budget allocation,” Wu said.
He also criticized Chang for proposing that the Council of Agricultural Affairs be charged with carrying out demolitions, saying the law stipulates that the council can only seek assistance from other government bodies and cannot carry out demolitions itself.
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