Dozens of residents of New Taipei City’s Shuangsi District (雙溪) yesterday called on the government to cancel construction of the Shuangsi Reservoir (雙溪水庫), saying that it should instead focus on managing rich water resources in the nation’s northeast.
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) in 1996 announced that the reservoir construction project would undergo a second-stage environmental impact assessment.
However, due to local residents’ strong opposition, the project’s developer, the Water Resources Agency, did not begin the EPA’s subsequent review procedure until 2013, when the EPA required the agency to submit more analyses about water storage and rainwater recycling.
Photo: CNA
The project has become part of the government’s Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, which launched this year.
The Shuangsi Reservoir would solve the water shortage problem in the northeast, where Keelung’s Sinshan Reservoir (新山水庫) and Sishih Reservoir (西勢水庫) are unable to supply adjacent areas with sufficient water, the agency said.
According to the agency’s plan, the Shuangsi Reservoir would draw water from the Dingzihlan River (丁子蘭溪) in Shuangsi and would have a storage capacity of 17 million cubic meters.
At a news conference in Taipei yesterday, local residents and environmentalists questioned the necessity of the project.
Instead of building a reservoir that would cost about NT$12 billion (US$400 million), the government should prioritize water storage and pipe leakage prevention efforts, local resident Lin Tseng Wen-yan (林曾文彥) said, adding that the local tap water system leaks about 30 percent of its water.
The government should promote rainwater collection and complete the construction of sewage disposal systems in Shuangsi, Pingsi (平溪), Gongliao (貢寮) and Rueifang (瑞芳) districts, Keelung River Protection Alliance convener Chen Chien-chih (陳建志) said, adding that the reservoir project might only benefit a few people in civil engineering circles.
Water shortage is only an excuse, otherwise the project would not have been postponed for about 20 years, Environmental Rights Foundation lawyer Chen Hsien-cheng (陳憲政) said.
The analyses required by the EPA’s Environmental Impact Assessment Committee in 1996 are now outdated, Chen Hsien-cheng said, adding that the agency should employ cutting-edge hydraulic engineering techniques to improve the local water supply system.
The Dingzihlan River basin is home to many protected species, such as Swinhoe’s pheasant and the emerald-green tree frog, Chinese Wild Bird Federation member Lu Yi-wei (呂翊維) said, adding that the government should not sacrifice wildlife habitats for a small reservoir.
The committee is to conduct a field examination on the planned site and hold a public hearing in Shuangsi on Friday next week.
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
RSS