The nation faces environmental catastrophe if national development projects such as large-scale artificial lakes and the Suao-Hualien Freeway are not subjected to thorough review, legislators and activists testified yesterday.
At a public hearing convened by the legislature's Sustainable Development Committee yesterday, environmentalists argued that some of the key items of the government's NT$500-billion public infrastructure package jeopardized sustainable development.
One of these items was four artificial lakes planned by the Water Resources Agency. Critics have charged that these projects merely offer certain companies the opportunity to plunder gravel and sandstone.
Citing the projected Kaoping Great Lake, environmentalists said that the construction site for the project covered 700 hectares of land that would reap 65 million cubic meters of gravel and sandstone.
One legislator indicated that the Cabinet's NT$500-billion public infrastructure package would require oversight by regulations proposed by the caucuses of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the Taiwan Solidarity Union and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) which assess the impact of road construction and water resources.
"We will never know if Taiwan really needs these artificial lakes because no comprehensive review of water-resource policies has been conducted," DPP Legislator Eugene Jao (
Tung Te-po (
"Therefore, the EPA will demand the completion soon of environmental impact-assessment reports for the projects," Tung said.
Water Resources Agency director-general Chen Shen-hsien (
"But I don't think that all of the artificial-lake projects can be canceled. Taiwan needs to explore new sources of fresh water to meet increasing demand," Chen said.
Chen said it was uncertain whether construction of two other artificial lakes planned for Tainan and Yunlin counties would proceed.
DPP Legislator Chiu Chuang-chin (
Environmentalists said the project was approved without the public being given any chance to participate in the decision-making process.
"A 40km tunnel might damage the ecological system and pollute nearby water resources. Why did the officials and experts who approved the environmental impact assessment not warn the public about this?" asked Sam Lin (
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