Taichung’s air quality did not improve as much as the government has claimed, as it only ranked eighth among all municipalities with regard to its reduction of airborne particles last year, Air Clean Taiwan chairman Yeh Guang-perng (葉光芃) said at a march in Taichung yesterday, where protesters demanded clean air.
The group said that about 4,000 people attended the event, which was the last of three large-scale demonstrations against air pollution this month.
Participants marched in the afternoon from Taichung Civic Square to the plaza in front of the Taichung City Hall.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
Demanding an environment with no coal, the group urged the government to decommission Taichung Power Plant’s 10 coal-fired units and not to interfere with environmental impact assessment procedures as it said Premier William Lai (賴清德) had done last month by pushing through CPC Corp, Taiwan’s plan to build a third liquefied natural gas terminal in Taoyuan.
While the Environmental Protection Administration on Saturday said the city’s air quality has improved by 18 percent since 2015, Yeh said the city’s reduction of PM2.5 — fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometers or smaller — was surpassed by Tainan and Chiayi City, as well as Kinmen, Nantou, Yunlin, Changhua and Chiayi counties.
Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), on Saturday said that he would not attend the protest.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
The city government has strived to curb pollution by cutting 5 million tonnes of coal use and has pushed local manufacturers to upgrade their pollution control facilities, said Lin, who is seeking re-election.
Instead of attending the march, Lin yesterday hosted an inauguration ceremony for a landfill that has been turned into a solar power plant, Taichung City Government spokesman Cho Kuan-ting (卓冠廷) said, adding that the city government would continue cut coal use and promote “green” energy to mitigate air pollution.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taichung mayoral candidate Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) and Nantou County Commissioner Lin Ming-chen (林明溱), who is seeking re-election, took part in the demonstration.
Taichung’s air pollution is cause by the DPP’s ill-advised energy policies that allow the coal-fired power plant to continue running, Lu said, adding that it is sad to see how the health of residents in central municipalities is sacrificed when part of power produced at the plant is sent to the north.
Despite its beautiful natural views, Nantou’s air quality is often worse than Taichung, with 240 county residents killed by lung cancer last year, Lin Ming-chen said, urging the DPP to improve air quality to prevent more pollution-related deaths.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
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