Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday approved a bill, which, if passed, would transform the nation’s 17 irrigation associations into government agencies and give them authority to punish polluters of irrigation water.
The bill was drafted in compliance with an amendment to the Act of Irrigation Association Organization (農田水利會組織通則) that stipulated a new law be introduced to convert the associations into agencies, and govern their assets and staff, Council of Agriculture (COA) Department of Irrigation and Engineering Director-General Hsieh Sheng-hsin (謝勝信) told a news conference at the Executive Yuan in Taipei.
The associations oversee about 60 percent of the nation’s water resources, but do not have authority over polluters, Hsieh said.
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
Other than shutting factories down, there are no penalties for offenders whose effluent contaminates irrigation water, he said.
Under the bill, only registered businesses that discharge effluent into irrigation water would be punished, with fines from NT$30,000 to NT$600,000.
About 2,300 employees at the 17 associations would be transferred to 17 corresponding agencies, which are to be created by the COA, Hsieh said.
The employees would enjoy benefits equivalent to those for civil servants under separate regulations to be introduced by the council, the draft says.
Should the transition from private entities to public entail the expropriation of land — for example in cases where an association’s premises encroach on private property — the government would pay for the properties, Hsieh said.
Land belonging to an association that has been idle due to outdated irrigation canals would be auctioned, with the income transferred to funds governed by each association to cover their operations, he said.
Asked how the council plans to persuade Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers to back the bill, COA Deputy Minister Chen Tien-shou (陳添壽) said that it would communicate with the KMT caucus to hopefully meet the Oct. 1 deadline to complete the move.
The KMT has been vocal in its opposition to the transition, saying that it is a “pork barrel” policy by the DPP.
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