Activist groups yesterday staged a rally outside the Changhua County Government to protest against the local government’s plan to expropriate farmland inside South Changhua Industrial Park in Sijhou Township (溪州) to accommodate factories, which they criticized as development at the cost of farming and a source of environmental pollution.
The protest, which was spearheaded by Changhua County Environmental Protection Union and Taiwan Rural Front, involved more than 100 demonstrators from local farming communities and environmental protection groups, who held banners and acted out skits to vent their frustration over the land expropriation plan.
South Changhua Anti-Industrial Pollution Self-help Group speaker Chung Man-man (鍾滿滿) said it is very likely that the plan has links to bribery from certain stakeholders in the private sector.
Photo: Chang Tsung-chiu, Taipei Times
The land that the Changhua County Government seeks to expropriate belongs to Taiwan Sugar Corp, she said, adding that the county government plans to reserve the land for a cluster of predominantly tire factories, including areas set aside for tire manufacturers Kenda Tires and Cheng Shin Rubber Industry Co, she said.
Part of the land in the proposed expropriation overlaps with the Golden Agricultural Corridor Plan set up by the Council of Agriculture, which was initiated last year to curb land subsidence in Yunlin and Changhua counties, Chung said.
The plan aims to boost soil and water conservation in the two counties by establishing afforestation and dry farming areas spanning 1.5km on both sides of the high-speed rail line.
“Agriculture is not only necessary for Sijhou Township [in Changhua County], but for all parts of Taiwan. We object to any industrial development in the area. We will continue to protest until the Changhua County Government drops the expropriation plan,” she said.
Changhua County Environmental Protection Union secretary-general Shih Yueh-ying (施月英) said the tire factories located along the west coast of Taiwan discharge wastewater containing toluene, a toxic chemical, into the ocean following a crude process of sedimentation and filtering, which poses a grave threat to the ecology of the Choshui River (濁水溪) and endangers the fisheries along the Changhua County coast.
The toxic waste also jeopardizes the habitat of the endangered Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins, which live in the waters along the west coast of Taiwan, she said.
Saying the county government in May issued a notice expressing its hopes to sign a one-year property lease with Taiwan Sugar Corp, she said it was an expedient move to “buy time” so as to work out details of the expropriation proposal, whose term of validity ends in September.
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