Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (
Hu made the remarks in response to a report in the Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily, which said that while the TWC has removed almost all of its asbestos water pipes, it and the Taichung City Government had delayed the removal of the last two asbestos pipes, which run through downtown Taichung and provide tapwater for about 150,000 people.
"The TWC did apply to remove the old water pipes, but it did not tell the city government and the public that the pipes were made from asbestos, which causes cancer. The TWC may have violated the Law of Public Safety (
PHOTO: CNA
Seizing the opportunity, Democ-ratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taichung City mayoral candidate Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday attacked Hu and the city government for ignoring Taichung residents' health.
"I and DPP city councilors asked the city government to immediately remove these harmful pipes. Before new pipes are completed, the city government must provide clean drinking water to citizens who rely on the asbestos pipes," Lin said at a press conference.
The Cabinet's Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in 1989 listed asbestos as a pois-onous chemical, and prohibited the TWC from using water pipes made with the material. In 1993, the EPA asked the TWC to remove all asbestos water pipes.
DPP City Councilor Ho Ming-cheng (何敏誠) yesterday said the TWC last October applied to the city government to remove the asbestos pipes, and has paid NT$26 million (US$776,000) in construction fees to the city government, but it has delayed the removal project.
Ho said that the city government delayed the project because it said the total construction fee is NT$32 million, and the TWC has not completed payment.
The city government also proposed laying cable wires alongside the new water pipes later in the year, so it wanted to complete the two projects at the same time, he said.
Noting that Hu is himself a TWC board member, Ho called on Hu not to shift blame onto others.
Hu responded that he was shocked to learn yesterday that Taichung City still has asbestos water pipes, and he was angry that the TWC "hid" the information.
The two asbestos pipes are 4km long in total. They lay along Taichung Port Road, around an area full of department stores and hotels, and along Jingming Bus-iness Circle (
Meanwhile, in other developments, KMT Legislator Lin Cheng-fong (
"The irony is that whenever there is a flood there is a water shortage," he said at a press conference held to address the issue.
According to Lin, Shihmen Reservoir was originally intended for irrigation purposes, meaning that the design didn't meet the standards for civilian use.
This, in addition to an accumul-ation of silt, means that in the event of a typhoon, the water becomes very muddy. After Typhoon Aere last year, water supplies didn't return to normal until 19 days after the storm.
Lin yesterday outlined a proposal for the restoration of Shihmen Reservoir, which will cost NT$25 billion over 6 years and is aimed at cleaning up the upstream water resource area, installing a filtering system for the dam and cleaning up the silt in the river.
Additional reporting by Jenny Chou
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS