Taiwan Church News
3330 Edition
December 21 – 27, 2015
Church Ministry
Demanding Ecological Justice, Southern Taiwan’s Civil Groups Rally To Protest Deteriorating Environmental Pollution And Reckless Industrial Development
Reported by Chen Yi-hsuan
In the afternoon on December 20, about 600 demonstrators from different environmental groups in southern Taiwan marched around National Cheng Kong University at Tainan, protesting the deteriorating air and water pollution and the reckless industrial development. They urged the public to recognize the crisis of Taiwan’s ecological environments and force the government and financial conglomerates to stop polluting this island.
There were 8 major appeals of this environmental rally for southern Taiwan: 1. Stop the expansion of Tainan Science and Technology Park(TSCP), in order to save 50 thousand tons of water and increase the electricity capacity with an extra 700 thousand kilowatts. 2. Stop the expansion of China Steel Corp.(CSC), China Oil Corp. and Da-Lin Power Plant; scrape down the project of petro-chemical park at Hsiao-gang. 3. CSC’s raw materials like coal and its burnt ashes should be covered at site. 4. Abolish the Kaohsiung Yacht Manufacturing Park. 5. General health risk assessment is required for each indutrial parks like TSCP, Tree Valley, Linhai and Linyuan. 6. Against the Matoushan sanitary landfill site. 7. Against the construction of No. 7 National Highway. 8. The petro-chemical pipelines above Chisan fault should be removed.
Attending this environmental rally for southern Taiwan were the following environmental groups, including Taiwan Environmental Protection Union(Tainan Branch Office), Kaohsiung Clean Air Network, Golden Piper Cultural Association, Anti-Mayoushan-Sanitary-Landfill Self-Help Association, Anti-Number-7-National-Highway Self-Help Association and etc.
A joint statement of these protesting environmental groups reads: We determine to fight against all kinds of air and water pollution, resulted from the inappropriate management during several decades of heavy industrial development, like the industries of metallurgy, petro-chemicals, electronics and semi-conductor manufacture, deployed in southern Taiwan. In the past consecutive years across southern Taiwan, the average ratios of Particulae Matter 2.5 (PM 2.5), cancer occurrance and cancer toll are all above the average ratio across Taiwan. People have to stand up and speak out for the environment of souther Taiwan! The future Taiwan President, congress men and women should be aware on this issue: Stop immediately the deteriorating air-and-water pollution and the reckless industrial development!”.
Translated by Peter Wolfe
