Mon, Jul 24, 2000 page8

• A safer environment, step by step

  • By Hung Hung-chih
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  The illegal dumping of toxic xylene (二甲苯) waste into the Kaoping River (高屏溪) is just the tip of the environnmental-disaster iceberg that is looming over Taiwan, the result of sacrificing a healthy environment to rapid economic growth.

  In fact, the Kaoping River incident shows that the Taiwanese are living in a "risky society," full of all kinds of potential environmental dangers. The hazards include not only water pollution, but also the mishandling of other industrial toxic wastes, insecticides, nuclear radiation (apartments and houses built with radioactive rebar) and so on. All the potential problems are just like bombs that may explode any time in any corner of Taiwan.

  Saying we live in a "risky society" is an attempt to force us to face the tribulations of our homeland seriously. The toxic pollution in the Kaoping River reveals the pain and injustice the land of Taiwan has suffered due to the government's ignorance and the public's greed. How badly is the Kaoping River suffering now? According to a survey conducted by the Commonwealth magazine (天下雜誌) in 1996, the upstream area of the river hadbeen developed with abandon; the midstream area had been turned into a garbage dump for the excrement of pigs and other animals; and the downstream area had been polluted with all kinds of toxic materials and chemical waste. All this despite the fact that the Kaoping is the major source of water for the greater Kaohsiung and Pingtung areas. But this kind of tragedy happens every day, to almost every major river in Taiwan -- the toxic polluting of the Kaoping River is not even the worst case.

  Different risks are included in the concept of "risky society" -- earthquakes and typhoons as well as risks posed by modern technology -- such as xylene dumping and nuclear waste pollution. These risks are closely connected to life in Taiwan and no one can escape from them. This is why the Kaoping incident has highlighted the need to have a complete "environmental risk management" (環境風險管理) system to prevent similar incidents and properly handle any that might occur.

  A proper environmental risk management system should:

  1. Identify the sources of risk and how such incidents might happen and build a complete data system in order to investigate, trace, control and clean up.

  2. Estimate the probability of such incidents and their possible influences in order to enhance the process of prevention and disaster management.

  3. Try to exclude, lower, or transfer the danger such incidents may pose to human bodies. Regulation of waste materials, trace management and the promotion of environmental insurance by the government would all be helpful.

  4. Increase communication with the public in order to promote the idea of environmental risk management. Provide the public with sufficient information related to the handling process of toxic waste, nuclear pollution control and other potential risks in order to avoid misleading statements or misunder-standings.

  However, it should not be left solely to the government to build an environmental risk management system. The government should let the people participate, supervise and build up a safe environment within their own communities first -- in order to prevent risk from the bottom up. Meanwhile, it should get companies to take industrial waste processing seriously either through economic measures or the law.

  It takes all three parties -- the government, the community and the companies -- to build an environmental risk management system together, in order to face the harsh challenges of the "risky society."

  Hung Hung-chih is an associate professor in the department of land economics at the National Taipei University.

  Translated by Eddy Chang
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