Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) yesterday filed a defamation lawsuit against three environmental activists who said Yang ignored warnings that a theme park could contaminate a source of water for residential areas.
At a press conference at the county government, Yang said Taiwan Water Resources Protection Alliance spokeswoman Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華), secretary-general of the Taiwan 228 Care Association Lin Li-tsai (林黎彩) and Union of Taiwanese Teachers chairwoman Wu Li-hui (吳麗慧) had sought to discredit him since the Democratic Progressive Party’s primary for the Greater Kaohsiung mayoral election in November.
Chen, Lin and Wu told a press conference at the legislature on Friday last week that although Yang knew the E-Da World (義大世界) theme park — a sprawling project comprising two hotels, an amusement park, a residential complex and a shopping mall — discharged large amounts of sewage into the nearby Gaoping River (高屏溪) every day, the county government did nothing to stop the practice.
The river is a major source of potable water for residents of Kaohsiung City and county.
They said the alliance found the river water was yellow, malodorous and seriously polluted — an allegation the county government and the theme park have denied.
The county’s Environmental Protection Bureau said an inspection of E-Da World determined that the amusement park did not dispose sewage, but rather kept it in storage.
Yang accused Chen, Lin and Wu of “aggravated defamation,” saying the allegations were a “fabrication.”
Yang said members of the county’s Environmental Impact Assessment Committee had specifically demanded that E-Da World not discharge sewage into the river to ensure water quality.
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