Residents of Meinung township (
On Thursday evening, more than 100 Meinung residents and anti-incinerator activists attended a public hearing called by DPP legislators Hsu Chih-ming (
Hsu said that he would lead Meinung residents to protest in front of the Presidential Office if the local government failed to address the problem.
Controversy over the incinerator was sparked early this year after Meinung residents heard rumors that the facility was operating illegally.
An operator at the plant revealed that the incinerator sometimes burned waste at a temperature lower than was safe to do so.
In addition, residents said they believed hazardous industrial and medical waste had been transported to the plant in secret. The incinerator is only permitted to burn 110 tonnes of household waste daily.
After carrying out what they said was a long-term investigation, the anti-incinerator activists in Meinung claimed the procedure by which the government issued operating permits to the plant was questionable.
Local residents then filed a lawsuit in August and the case has since been taken over by Kaohsiung County district prosecutors. Last month, prosecutors interrogated several county government officials suspected of corruption linked to the incinerator. All were subsequently released on bail.
Investigations are now focusing on the process by which the plant's operating permit (操作許可) and construction license (建築執照) were issued by the local government.
Prosecutors said that one of the key points in question was that the waste incinerator was built in an area that previously was a buffer zone for the Laonung River (
Residents previously accused the Taiwan Provincial Government, before it was downsized, of arbitrarily narrowing the buffer zone along the river in 1998 to allow the incinerator to be built there.
Hsiao Chu-liang (
"The government, by allowing an incinerator to be built in a river buffer zone, has neglected the safety of millions living in the Kaohsiung metropolitan area downstream who rely on the river as a source of drinking water," Hsiao said.
During the hearing, local farmers played a videotape which documented what they said was "unusual crop damage" linked to the incinerator. Furthermore, the area affected by the damage is widening, they said.
One local resident, a mother, said that her child began suffering from asthma and a skin disease after the plant began to burn waste in September 1999.
She said that her child was only one of many in the area who suffered similar symptoms.
Due to strong local opposition, the plant has stopped accepting hazardous industrial waste for processing. Meinung residents, however, remain dissatisfied -- and say they will campaign until the plant is closed down permanently.
Hsu said that the plant should have already been shut down -- albeit temporarily -- while prosecutors conduct their investigations.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
RSS