Representatives of A’tolan Village in Taitung County’s Donghe Township (東河), along with environmental groups, yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Environment in Taipei against a proposed resort construction project near the village, saying the developer failed to conduct sufficient environmental impact assessments (EIA) and communicate with the village.
ATT Group plans to build a resort that would comprise seven large buildings and 18 villas on nearly seven hectares in Kakahalay, an indigenous traditional territory of the village.
ATT initially proposed the project in 2016, which underwent an EIA review by the Taitung County Government in 2018 and was transferred to the central government the following year.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
The project in June and November last year went through the first and second EIA review by the ministry respectively before the third review was completed yesterday.
Village representative Paylang Caya asked the firm to hold public hearings at the community center in the village instead of at the Donghe Township Office 20km away.
The developer violated the Rules Governing Traditional Territories of the A’tolan Village (都蘭部落傳統領域管理原則) by initiating the project without obtaining approval from the village, he said.
Sontok Diway asked ATT to remove the Amis Music Festival from its list of “recreational resources” for the project, as the festival is the indigenous community’s achievement and should not be appropriated without permission.
The village would not reject economic revitalization via land development, but the village’s tourism should not be developed without due respect to the land, environment and local culture, he said.
Papah Tupang said the resort might compete with the village and local communities for water, as the region often has shortages due to low water pressure.
ATT should specify whether it would bear the cost of extending water pipelines, he said.
Trust in Nature Foundation spokeswoman Chen Zih-rong (陳姿蓉) said the resort would generate lots of wastewater, which would affect local natural water systems.
The developer did not conduct an EIA of surrounding maritime areas and the coral reef ecosystem, while data from the foundation showed that living coral reefs in the bay decreased by nearly half to 32.5 percent last year, from 60 percent in 2014, she said.
Massive quantities of water discharge from the resort could cause the bay’s near-shore salinity to plunge to lower than 20 practical salinity units, to the detriment of coral reefs, Chen said.
The Society of Wilderness’ Taitung branch spokeswoman Su Ya-ting (蘇雅婷) said the construction site is near a coastal terrace that has been repeatedly hit by landslides due to typhoons or heavy rainfall, with the affected slope left bare.
The developer judged the slope to be safe simply using images from Google Earth, and ignored the fact that the terrace continues to collapse and recede, she said.
Citizen of the Earth spokesman Liang Sheng-yueh (梁聖岳) said the project is not a dilemma between economic development and environmental protection, but a choice between land speculation, and social and environmental reconciliation.
The EIA committee yesterday said it would continue to review the case and requested that ATT submit additional documents by Sept. 30.
ATT said it would obtain Green Building and Green Mark Hotel certifications, as well as communicate with local residents and visit the village with committee member Chiou Chyi-rong (邱祈榮).
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