Dozens of protesters yesterday gathered outside the Taiwan International Fastener Show venue in Kaohsiung to protest a proposed screw factory in the city and potential pollution.
Residents from Kaohsiung’s Lujhu (路竹) and Hunei (湖內) districts rallied against a proposal by Chen Nan Iron Wire Co — the parent company and supplier of a fastener company participating in the exhibition — to build an iron wire and screw factory in Hunei, as effluent produced by the factory could affect agriculture.
They waved banners and urged visitors not to purchase non-
environmentally friendly products or place orders with businesses that do not have corporate social responsibility regulations.
The proposed factory site, a farm owned by state-run Taiwan Sugar Corp at the border of Hunei and Lujhu, is surrounded by large areas of tomato and broccoli farmland.
“Agriculture is an industry as much as the fastener industry is. The city government should have a comprehensive plan to develop different industries in appropriate locations and screw factories should be placed in industrial parks away from farmland,” resident Yang Kuo-hua (楊國華) said.
“The city government is contradicting its own agricultural land solely for agricultural use policy by allowing farmland to be converted into a factory,” Yang said.
Farmer Cheng Ching-chih (鄭清智) said the city government is destroying agriculture and treating farmers like second-class citizens. He said that the proposed factory’s manufacturing process would involve immersing metals in acid to remove impurities and oxides, and the resultant wastewater could significantly affect farmlands and aquaculture downstream.
“Residents have used all kinds of methods, including lawsuits, petitions and protests, to dissuade the company and government from making a profit from residents’ health and property over the past year, but they were all in vain. So we are here today to voice our protest,” local self-help group director Tsai Chun-chi (蔡春紀) said.
The Environmental Jurists Association said Taiwan is the second-largest fastener exporter in the world, but the achievement was built on the sacrifice of local residents and the environment.
The government should abandon its “brown” economy and transition to a “green” economy, the association said, calling on the city government to reconsider the factory plan and require exhibitors at the fastener show to provide environmental test reports for their products to encourage “green” consumption.
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