Hundreds of residents in central Taiwan yesterday protested against the commencement of construction on a private medical incinerator, saying that they would never accept compensation from the developer in exchange for a clean and safe residential environment.
Yesterday morning, more than 500 residents from Fuli township (
"This should have been the last place that anyone could consider building an incinerator because it is only 500m away from a residential district," said Yang Ta-neng (
Yang questioned members of the waste handler's management about the legally required, but allegedly not executed, environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the incinerator, which was designed to burn medical waste from hospitals and clinics in six counties in central Taiwan.
Construction on the incinerator failed to get underway last year because residents put up strong resistance to the project fearing that it would damage the environment surrounding their homes.
Some inhabitants of Fuli township said yesterday that they were thinking of demanding full refunds on the purchase prices of houses they had bought from the Changhua County Government because they had never been informed that they would have a medical incinerator for a neighbor.
Pan Wu-chao (
"No matter what, we will build a medical incinerator here," said Pan, however, adding that Yilien had no intention of relocating the plant.
Numerous powerful local groups of opponents of both the planned and existing medical incinerators have put the medical waste management system in Taiwan under fire.
According to the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), more than 10 incinerators have been forced to shut down due to local opposition. Those remaining have been given a combined ceiling of 50 tonnes a day -- representing what the EPA estimates as the total daily medical waste generated.
EPA officials did admit, however, that the closure of four further medical waste incinerators in late July and August have left incineration capacity below that of waste generation. Currently, about 13 tonnes of waste per day are building up because of insufficient incineration capacity.
These closed plants include two incinerators owned by Chiateh Waste Handling (嘉德公司), Taichung County-based Wanlee Corp (萬力油壓公司), and the Kaohsiung Joint Treatment Center (高雄聯合處理中心).
EPA Administrator Lin Jun-yi (林俊義) met with officials from the Department of Health on Monday evening, agreeing to negotiate with local governments to seek their acceptance of medical waste from other counties during a transition period of three months.
During this period the EPA will review regulations for licensing and it is expected some of the incinerators that have been temporarily shut down will be allowed to reopen to meet demand.
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