Legislators said yesterday a recent controversy surrounding a Japanese firm's winning a bid to build a waste incinerator in Ilan County for the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) showed only part of problems resulting from questionable incineration-oriented waste management policy.
Last Saturday, PFP legislator Hsieh Chang-chieh (
Hsieh said EPA head Hau Ling-bin (
Although Hau last Saturday stressed that the contract was awarded based on cost-effectiveness, professional performance and public interest, and that neither he himself nor any other EPA officials had personal involvements with the Japanese company, he was under attack by Hsieh on Tuesday at the Legislative Yuan.
Yesterday, legislators of the Sanitation, Environment and Social Welfare Committee, however, said a bigger problem behind the argument between Hau and Hsieh over the NT$2.28 billion incinerator was the incineration-oriented waste management strategies the EPA is making efforts to carry out in Taiwan.
Legislators said that there was far too much scope for corruption in the bidding process.
The EPA plan seeks to complete 36 public and private waste incinerators by 2003 to burn 30,400 tonnes of household waste per day.
"Almost all the bids in various counties for building incinerators are mired in profiteering scandals," DPP legislator Lai Chin-lin (賴勁麟) said at a press conference yesterday.
In addition, Lai said that the amount of garbage produced in Taiwan per day has dropped in the past five years, while the recycling rate is increasing. Statistically, Taiwanese produced 24,331 tonnes of household waste per day in 1997 and only 19,686 tonnes in 2001.
"Therefore, we can see some completed incinerators in some counties receive insufficient waste to burn and some have even stopped operating," said Lai, adding that about one third of total incineration capacity would be unused if all the incinerators were completed on schedule.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
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