The root causes of Taiwan's diverse environmental problems, many of which are the result of poorly designed environmental policies, must be scrutinized and innovative sustainable development concepts devised to tackle them, academics and environmentalists said on the eve of Earth Day yesterday.
Various civic groups are sponsoring the 2nd National NGO Conference today in Taipei to mark Earth Day. The conference will address issues of environmental protection and ecological conservation.
Activists will also release a list of environmentally unfriendly industrial developers to spotlight the government's failure to stop development projects that jeopardize the environment.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
However, at four preparatory meetings held in the north, center, south and east of the country, activists and professionals said that all of the unresolved environmental controversies could be attributed to inappropriate administrative management by the government.
"Although society has been free from martial law since 1987, the government's administrative system is not," Hsu Shih-jung (
Taking the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (EIA Act,
The EIA committees that conduct the assessments are usually composed of government officials, experts, researchers, and local residents or representative of social groups. However, the opinions of officials and experts usually dominate the proceedings.
"In addition, the EIA report is usually produced by a consulting company that helps the developer to deploy and integrate technology [for the project]. It's rare for the company to expose the disadvantages of a proposal," Hsu said.
For example, the potential threat posed by a recently completed industrial-waste landfill in Dongshan Township, Tainan County, to the Wushantou Reservoir, one of the main sources of irrigation and drinking water in southern Taiwan, was excluded from the development project proposal.
Hsu said that what usually frustrates residents and environmentalists is that the land-use plan is secretly changed by local government officials for future development projects without the public being notified in advance.
The region where two industrial waste landfills have been built was previously a restricted area in order to protect water resources.
Hsu said the government should review older projects, whose proposals were made a long time ago, to take into account recent environmental changes.
Hsu's opinions were echoed by environmentalists.
Sam Lin (
The EIA system was first used by the US in the early 1970s and influenced European countries as well as New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Japan. Developing countries in Asia did not begin to promote the EIA system until the 1980s.
After the government spent a decade preparing an EIA bill for the legislature, the EIA Act was finally enacted at the end of 1994.
Environmentalists said that loopholes in the law have helped controversial industrial and reservoir development projects over the past decade.
Meanwhile, Lai Wei-chieh (
Lai said his participation in a committee to monitor the environment of the construction site of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant had not helped in conveying the anxiety of local residents, who had witnessed the deterioration of the coastal environment and the death of a river.
The same situation can be seen in Hsinchu, the site of the nation's first science park. Environmentalists said that problems with a newly-completed sludge-treatment facility for the park's waste-water treatment plant could not be resolved through the public's participation in a committee the park's administration set up to monitor environmental quality.
Environmentalists said the sludge incinerator, designed to treat up to 95 tonnes of industrial sludge daily, continues to operate despite local opposition and penalties imposed by the Hsinchu City Government for exceeding toxic arsenic and dioxin emission levels.
Green Formosa Front chairman Wu Tung-jye (
"Residents affected by development projects seem to have no choice but to accept the negative impact of these projects," Wu said.
John Byrne, director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy (CEEP) and distinguished professor of public policy at the University of Delaware, told the Taipei Times that based on his long-term observation of Taiwan's energy policies he was surprised that the government has not adjusted its policies to follow the global trend toward sustainable development.
"I'm surprised that Taiwan has made very modest progress in the direction of promoting renewable energy," Byrne said during a recent visit to Taipei for a conference.
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Energy Commission, by 2020, when renewable energy will be responsible for 12 percent of the power generation capacity in this country, it will account for only 5 percent of total energy supplies.
Byrne said wind power is the fastest growing energy source in the world. The wind-power industry is growing by about 20 percent per year while solar power is increasing by 15 percent per year.
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