For many years, the annual World Competitiveness Yearbook published by the Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland has been pointing out that Taiwan's public infrastructure is outdated. In particular, the fact that the number of sewerage systems -- one indicator of a nation's development -- is rather low, has affected Taiwan's ranking in the overall evaluation. This is a problem that seriously affects people's quality of life and has therefore been a focus of public criticism.
The former KMT government emphasized the protection of water sources and officially designated five major run-off areas as water resource areas. The central government also covered the costs of sewerage systems in 12 areas. Only the cities of Taipei and Kaohsiung, however, actively constructed sewerage systems. By the end of last year the prevalence of such systems throughout all of Taiwan was only 7.2 percent. Outside Taipei and Kaohsiung Cities, the prevalence is less than one percent.
Learning a lesson from this, the DPP government announced in September last year that it would invest NT$50 billion over the next four years to increase the prevalence of sewerage systems to 17 percent. Then the central government's subsidies to each city and county will be adjusted upward to between 90 and 100 percent, depending on the financial situation in each city and county. Subsidies will cover expenses for linking households to the sewerage systems. In comparison to the subsidies given by central governments around the world, this is quite generous.
In its NT$810 billion economic stimulus package, the central government ranked sewerage system infrastructure as a top priority in improving the quality of Taiwan's living environment. Moreover, the Ministry of the Interior also established a committee to promote sewerage-system construction. It has actively assisted with revising laws and regulations, fixed standards for operations and trained personnel. After a year, however, the results have been extremely limited.
Sewerage systems are part of local infrastructure. According to Taiwanese law, planning and installation should be carried out by local governments while the central government provides the budget and supervision. Although this is a national policy and the central government provides nearly all of the budget, a great majority of mayors and heads of counties have not implemented the policy as vigorously as would be desirable. Some have even ignored it -- usually due to their own short-term campaign interests. They would rather go without the subsidies from the central government and not have to think about construction. They only seek superficial harmony and have no ambition for making improvements.
Most mayors and heads of counties are dragging their feet mainly because, even when the central government provides the budget, construction of sewerage systems will disrupt traffic (temporarily, and the problem can be overcome) and draw complaints. Besides, the construction does not produce quick results. It also requires land requisition for sewerage treatment plants, which will incite protests and affect politicians' popular support. Moreover, if the construction doesn't go smoothly and budget expenditures can't cover 90 percent every year, that will affect their performance records. These problems reveal the short-sightedness of mayors and county chiefs who lack the ambition to improve their cities and counties.
These officials would rather have a transient and false harmony that can be used as capital in campaigning for another term. This could be called a policy of keeping the people ignorant. Even a surgical operation will cause a bit of blood to spill. Construction projects will also inevitably cause some environmental pollution while work is underway, but it can be kept to an absolute minimum. Preferring to allow unemployment among their constituents -- rather than create work opportunities for them -- is an even greater failure on the part of the local government chiefs.
In addition, the central government has given repeated orders for each city and county to establish an office in charge of sewers. But there are still seven cities and counties that have not done so, while others have put the office under their public works divisions, which have nothing to do with construction work. This arrangement is affecting the coordination of operations.
The lack of manpower to carry out the policy also reflects the inability of mayors and county heads to take the policy seriously. Residents of Taipei City and Kaohsiung City have requested that the linking of households to the sewerage systems be speeded up, so as to improve their city's images. But a great majority of mayors and county heads elsewhere do not take the policy seriously. They would prefer to let the residents of their own districts become second-class citizens. How can we tolerate that?
City mayor and county chief elections will be held in December this year. I would urge all people to evaluate incumbent mayors and county heads running for another term of office on the basis of whether they have any intention to improve the infrastructure or whether they are merely keeping people ignorant about improving the quality of their environment. As for the new candidates, I would urge everybody look even more strongly at whether they have made the central government's policy on sewerage systems a key part of their platform. In the current wave of unemployment, construction of infrastructure can greatly increase the demand for labor and the number of job opportunities. Since the central government has allocated a budget for infrastructure construction, this is an opportune chance to create jobs and improve the quality of the environment, as well as the nation's competitiveness.
Ouyang Chiao-fuei is a professor at the Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering at National Central University.
Translated by Ethan Harkness
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