The Alliance for the Rescue of Datan Algae Reefs yesterday reiterated its call on President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to protect Taoyuan’s algae reefs, urging her to be humble and live up to her promises.
The alliance created a temporary sculpture depicting the outline of Taiwan proper with 1,000 paper cups on Taipei’s Ketagalan Boulevard.
In Mandarin, “humble” is pronounced qian bei (謙卑), which is similar to the pronunciation of “thousand cups.”
Photo: CNA
Alliance convener Pan Chong-cheng (潘忠政) said that Tsai should remember her own words, when in 2016 she asked her administration members to be “humble, humble and humble.”
The alliance has been protesting the construction of the nation’s third liquefied natural gas terminal by state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan off the coast of Datan Borough (大潭) in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音).
The intertidal zone is home to a wide stretch of endangered algae and other protected marine species, the alliance said.
Construction of the terminal started last year, after the project in 2018 passed an environmental impact assessment amid controversy.
In March, a ship commissioned by CPC was found stranded on the shore, prompting the alliance to question the company’s pledge that it would avoid damaging the environment.
Environmental advocates on June 4 met with Tsai in the Presidential Office to talk about the issue, and Tsai promised to set up a communication platform to help settle the problem, Pan said.
However, the president did not fulfill her promise, and the company continues construction without a better plan for protecting the reefs, he said.
During the event, Taiwan Citizen Participation Association chairman Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) created a calligraphy piece, also reiterating the “thousand cups” slogan, while other participants held up placards.
One of the few natural coasts in Taiwan proper’s west, the Datan coast is home to algal reefs and endangered coral species, and should be protected by law, New Power Party Legislator Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said.
However, the central and local governments have turned a blind eye to the fact and pushed through the project, even though there are alternative locations, Chen said.
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