Residents from Kaohsiung’s Cishan (旗山) and Neimen (內門) Districts rallied in front of the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday to file charges against the city government for allegedly favoring a waste processor that plans to build a landfill for industrial waste at the foot of Matou Mountain (馬頭山).
The residents, led by a local self-help group, pressed charges against Fuchun Corp (富駿事業股份有限公司) for allegedly constructing a road at the foot of the mountain without authorization.
The group said a development application the company submitted to the city government stated that it would renovate a 200m farm road at the premises, but it had actually constructed a road that is more than 1500m long and has slopes with more than a 50° gradient.
The road was allegedly illegally built without the city government’s approval and the company failed to conduct water and soil conservation at the site, leading to soil loss and exposed tree roots in the area, the group said.
The city government was included on the lawsuit for purportedly shielding and catering to the interest of the waste processor, the group said, adding it had filed many petitions with the government, but were only given perfunctory responses.
The protest and legal action were the latest of a series of protests against the proposed landfill project, as local residents said the proposed site is upstream of the Erren River (二仁溪), near the Agongdian Reservoir (阿公店水庫) and could pose a threat to the municipality’s water quality if toxic waste were dumped at the site.
In a meeting with local residents at Cishan on Aug. 19, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said the landfill project was rejected by the city government’s environmental impact assessment committee and the company had not yet filed a reapplication.
Kaohsiung Water Resources Bureau on Friday said that it had conducted an inspection at the road construction site following residents’ complaints and found defective on-site management, such as poor drainage systems and slope protection, but no illegal activity as claimed by the residents.
In response, Fuchun Corp said in a statement that it had conducted all construction in accordance with city government regulations, and that it withholds the right to sue the self-help group for its allegations and trespassing on company property.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
RSS