President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday said that the controversial Meinung Dam (美濃水庫) would not be built as long as he is in office.
Chen said that shelving plans for the dam in the southern Kaohsiung County township of Meinung would fulfill one of his campaign promises.
"As long as there are alternative ways to supply water to the greater Kaohsiung area, it is not necessary to build the Meinung Dam," Chen said.
"I am here to confirm that the promise that I made during the campaign was good when I made it and is good now. The dam will not be built during my term in office," Chen said.
Government spokeswoman Chung Chin (
The former KMT government had originally planned to build a major reservoir near Meinung village, a cultural center for the island's Hakka ethnic group, to increase the water supply to industries.
Local residents and the DPP have been bitterly opposed to the project.
Last summer, with a majority of KMT legislators, the Legislative Yuan passed a NT$250 million budget for construction of the dam, which observers saw as the end of the opposition to the dam. But after Chen was elected president in March of last year, the movement against the dam was given a new lease on life.
Chung Yung-feng (
Moreover, after the presidential election, DPP legislators demanded that the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA,
Meinung residents have long been against the construction of the Meinung Dam.
According to the government, surveyors have been mapping out the area for the last 10 years and the protests against the project have persisted ever since.
In October 1992, a group of local scholars met to discuss the main reasons the dam should not be built. They concluded that the benefits of the dam would be to industry and not to the residents who would have to live in its shadow. They also said that Japanese engineers had found serious faults with the surrounding shale and sandstone formations.
Moreover, the group said that the worries of the local residents were being ignored.
Chang Cheng-yang (
"What we say now is the same message we've been saying for years. It has been a long protest. I am pleased to hear that the president has made good on his campaign promise, but my only hope is that there will never be a dam built in Meinung," he said.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS