Residents of Mailiao Township (麥寮), Yunlin County, are planning to rally at Formosa Plastics Group’s petrochemical complex tomorrow to reiterate their demand for an immediate halt to operations at the fire-stricken facility. Hsu Liu-pin (許留賓), a township representative, said yesterday that an estimated 300 residents would deliver their appeal to company officials.
Besides demanding a full suspension of operations, Hsu said the protesters would demand that Formosa Plastics Group put forward an evacuation plan so that locals could keep away from danger zones should similar accidents occur again.
Hsu was referring to the two blazes that broke out at the nation’s largest petrochemical complex last week, the sixth and seventh fires there in a year.
Following Monday’s protest by residents of Taisi (台西), Baojhong (褒忠), Dongshih (東勢) and Lunbei (崙背) — all townships surrounding the complex — Hsu said the new protest would be an “ultimatum” to the company.
“If they fail to give us the answer we want, we will launch a long-term battle against them,” he said.
Hsu said the protests would become better organized, larger and more intense until the operations of the complex become impossible.
For instance, Hsu said, local residents would not rule out occupying streets surrounding the complex to enforce massive road closures in the area.
Meanwhile, environmentalists urged the government yesterday to speed up the promotion of higher-value petrochemical production in Taiwan in the wake of the fires at the complex.
Blaming the fires on gas leaks from aging pipelines, the activists said the government should help the industry shift its focus away from a scale-oriented mode of production that tends to put a heavy burden on facilities and equipment.
“It [sectional shutdown] is only healing the head when there’s a headache and healing the foot when the foot aches. We think it [the Mailiao plant] needs a thorough inspection to prevent future problems,” Taiwan Environmental Protection Union Changhua Division deputy-director Tsai Chia-yang (蔡嘉陽) said.
Tsai said the government should take the opportunity to review the policy toward the industry and shut down or shrink the scale of inappropriate plants.
“Only low-value petrochemicals can be yielded under such a practice [of employing larger-scale plants],” said Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權), a professor of occupational medicine and industrial hygiene at National Taiwan University. “Taiwan cannot continue with this model because it is both uneconomical and harmful to the environment.”
Instead, Chan said, Taiwan should increase the added value of its petrochemical products at home, while working with global partners to pursue production on a massive scale.
In June, the Ministry of Economic Affairs established a goal of helping the local petrochemical industry increase its value-added rate to 20 percent by 2020.
Before that goal is met, some environmentalists said, the government should also consider the possibility of relocating part of the Mailiao operations to Greater Kaohsiung, where environmental conditions are considered more suitable for concentrated petrochemical production.
“The problems of land subsidence and water shortage are especially severe in central Taiwan,” Tsai said. “The government needs to revise its strategy for national spatial development so that resources can be allocated wisely.”
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
RSS