Water drawn from Nantou County’s Jiji Weir (集集攔河堰) to meet industrial demand from a naphtha cracker should be redirected to farmland once desalinated seawater becomes available later this month, environmental groups said yesterday, urging authorities to add such clauses when renewing the plant’s water-use contract this year.
Taiwan Hsinchu Foundation chairman Sam Lin (林聖崇) said the plant — built and operated by Formosa Petrochemical Corp in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮) — began diverting water via the weir 30 years ago, sharing it with agricultural users in Changhua and Yunlin counties.
Although the plant has no water rights during the dry season — February to May — it continues to purchase water at low prices from the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Bureau of Industrial Parks, Lin said.
Photo: Liu Pin-chuan, Taipei Times
The competition for resources forced local farmers to rely on groundwater, while the diversion of river water by the weir has prevented aquifer replenishment in geologically fragile areas such as Ershuei (二水) and Sijhou (溪州) townships in Changhua County, he said.
This has led to severe land subsidence along the weir, particularly in Yunlin County’s Yuanchang Township (元長), where the ground has sunk by as much as 2m, raising safety concerns for the high-speed rail line running through the county, he added.
Changhua Environmental Protection Union secretary-general Shih Yueh-ying (施月英) said the plant’s massive water consumption has worsened fugitive dust in the region and could also threaten the habitat of white dolphins near the estuary of the Jhuoshuei River (濁水溪).
Formosa Petrochemical Corp should put its seawater desalination plant into operation this month as promised, she said, calling on water resource authorities to impose penalties if operations are postponed again.
Yunlin County Shallow Waters Aquaculture Association secretary-general Lin Jia-an (林家安) said that Formosa Petrochemical Corp received many government subsidies when constructing the naphtha cracker 30 years ago.
However, the corporation has since grown into a highly profitable global enterprise and should not be allowed to compete with farmers for subsidized water, he said.
Taiwan Water Resources Conservation Union chairwoman Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said that the authorities continue to allocate more than 200,000 tonnes of water to the plant during the dry season, despite its production capacity having declined over the past few years.
Given that 100,000 tonnes of desalinated seawater per day are expected to come online this month, while the plant’s average daily water use has been 204,000 tonnes over the past three years, the renewed contract should at least cap its allocation at 140,000 tonnes per day, Shih said, adding that the contract should also require an annual 10 percent reduction in the cap.
The Water Resources Agency said the new contract would include a dry-season water use plan and would require Formosa Petrochemical Corp to promptly activate its desalination facility.
Asked whether the naphtha cracker’s allocation would be cut by at least 100,000 tonnes, the agency said the 100,000 tonnes expected from desalination would be added to the overall supply portfolio before calculating distribution.
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
EVA Airways, one of the leading international carriers in Taiwan, yesterday said that it was investigating reports that a cabin crew manager had ignored the condition of a sick flight attendant, who died on Saturday. The airline made the statement in response to a post circulating on social media that said that the flight attendant on an outbound flight was feeling sick and notified the cabin crew manager. Although the flight attendant grew increasingly ill on the return flight, the manager did not contact Medlink — a system that connects the aircraft to doctors on the ground for treatment advice during medical
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
RSS