A pumped storage hydropower construction project along the Dajia River (大甲溪) proposed by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) should be suspended until consent is obtained from indigenous villages in accordance with regulations, H’rong Village representatives and environmental groups said at a protest in front of the Ministry of Environment in Taipei yesterday.
Taipower plans to build four pumped storage hydropower generators with a total installed capacity of about 610 megawatts, as well as a 10.6km headrace tunnel around the Dajia River in Taichung’s Heping District (和平), with the Deji Reservoir (德基水庫) and the Guguan Reservoir (谷關水庫) being the upper and lower reservoirs of the pumped storage hydropower system.
If approved by the environmental impact assessment (EIA) committee, a total of NT$60 billion (US$1.97 billion) would be granted to fund the project over a 10-year period.
Photo: CNA
As the project scope largely overlaps with H’rong Village’s traditional territory, the developer should have obtained consent from the village before it proceeded with the EIA, as required by Article 21 of the Indigenous Peoples Basic Act (原住民族基本法), Environmental Rights Foundation Taichung director Chung Han-shu (鍾瀚樞) said.
However, Taipower did not follow the procedure and based its decision on an official letter from the Heping District Office, which claimed “there is no relevant village” in the region, he said.
H’rong Tribal Council president Yulao O’bin said the village has filed an administrative appeal against the district office’s statement, urging the EIA committee to stop the project’s review.
H’rong Village resident Sulu Kwesi said that part of the project’s construction surplus is slated to be piled on a historic site of the village, where their ancestors used to live and hold festivals.
“That would bury our culture and history,” she said, adding that indigenous cultural exploration was not included in Taipower’s EIA report and the village’s voice remained unheard.
Environmental Rights Foundation attorney Yan Shih-cheng (顏士程) cited the Supreme Administrative Court as saying that construction projects must obtain consent from local indigenous villages as required by the act if the project is in traditional territory.
However, the district office considered the consent process unnecessary, simply because it is not close to the H’rong Village community, he said.
That did not align with court precedents or conform to the Council of Indigenous Peoples’ rules, Yan said.
At the EIA review meeting held at the ministry yesterday, the EIA committee expressed concern about the potential impact of the drilling and blasting method on the unstable geological structure around the project site.
The committee also asked the developer to conduct a more complete evaluation of potential air pollution, including fugitive dust caused by the construction and piled-up construction surplus.
Regarding the procedural issue of obtaining consent from relevant villages, the ministry’s Department of Environmental Protection said the EIA and indigenous consent procedure are separate.
No regulations mandate that indigenous consent must be obtained prior to the EIA review, it said.
The Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau asked the developer to consult more experts specializing in tunnel engineering and indigenous culture.
The committee advised the developer to revise the EIA report for further review.
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