Environmentalist Huang Huan-chang (黃煥彰) was on Friday presented with the Lifetime Environmental Protection Award at this year’s Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations Convention in Taipei.
In response, Huang urged people to show concern about the pollution of farmland and fish ponds, adding that inaction would only harm their own bodies.
It is of utmost importance for the government to update its waste disposal legislation, especially in light of government policies promoting high-tech industrial development, he said.
Loopholes in existing legislation mean company owners who illegally dispose of waste often receive small fines or little punishment, and some even get away scot-free, he said.
In addition to that, the government has not invested in handling waste matter generated by the high-tech sector, so the problems presented by pollution are very real, Huang said.
There are about 200 sites where illegal waste is disposed every year, but only 8 percent of those sites are cleaned up, he said.
Huang said that without action, such disposal sites would grow and eventually affect agriculture and fish ponds, which would then evolve into a food safety issue.
Speaking of his experiences, Huang said that over the past 20-odd years his efforts to protect the environment have not always gone smoothly, adding that he has been threatened over the telephone and was even followed by gang members.
Some of his friends have become estranged because they believed falsehoods created to alienate them, Huang said, adding that he was even locked in a room by a plant owner when he visited to gauge the extent of pollution produced by the plant facility.
Despite everything, Huang pledged to continue his work to protect the environment.
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