At a public hearing yesterday on the Council of Agriculture’s (COA) draft amendment to several provisions in the Soil and Water Conservation Act (水土保持法), environmental protection groups demanded that the council retract its proposal, saying that the move would result in a drastic reduction in the scope of the nation’s designated soil conservation areas and could be a gesture aimed at pandering to corporations wanting to develop reservoir catchment areas.
The draft amendment, submitted by the council in October 2013 to the legislature’s Committee of Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene, proposes to cut designated soil and water conservation areas by more than 80 percent — from 1.72 million hectares to 332,500 hectares — and change the assessment of slopes, which the Taiwan Water Resources Protection Union said would greatly relax restrictions on land allowed for construction.
Union director Jennifer Nien (粘麗玉) said existing regulations incorporate all catchment areas of all reservoirs — about 2 million hectares — as areas designated for soil and water conservation, but to date, the council has only announced 18,000 hectares of the overall space.
Photo: Weng Lu-huang, Taipei Times
“If the council deems it necessary to list the 332,500 hectares of land as designated soil and water conservation areas, it can by all means announce them now, without having to amend the act,” she said.
As for the 1.72 million hectares that the council has proposed renouncing, Nien said that it should provide clear explanations as to why the plots no longer require protection by law.
On the council’s proposal to abolish Article 19 of the act, she said that such a move would relax restrictions on projects currently prohibited in catchment areas, for example hotel complexes.
She said the challenges facing the nation’s soil and water conservation efforts are dire, a situation manifest in the government’s planning budgets totaling more than NT$200 billion (US$6.32 billion) since 2006, including NT$50 billion that went into relief efforts in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot.
If the amendments are passed, the catchment areas could suffer from damage and heavy sedimentation caused by development, which would deteriorate the nation’s water quality, Nien said.
In response, Soil and Water Conservation Bureau Director-General Lee Chen-yang (李鎮洋) said the existing law is too restrictive on projects planned for catchment areas.
As a result, road projects and the deployment of pipelines have been banned, which has drawn public criticism, he said.
In addition, recreational facilities that are allowed in conservation areas would be banned if the amendments are passed to allow for better management of these areas, he said.
He added that the bureau would strive to reach a consensus with members of the public to push the amendment forward.
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