Taipei’s rodent issue has sparked a partisan clash as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) accused the city government of being slow in its response to the problem, while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) accused the DPP of using the issue as a political tool for electoral gains.
Taipei City Councilor Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) of the DPP said in an online post yesterday that the rodent problem in Taipei has drawn significant public concern, adding that she has received many reports from residents expressing worries about living conditions and public safety.
Experts and academics have made recommendations in the past few months, emphasizing the need for source-based control measures, she said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
However, the Taipei City Government’s response has been noticeably slow, having held only three related meetings so far, she said, adding that Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the KMT presided over only the first meeting on Feb. 2, while the Feb. 9 and April 17 meetings were chaired by deputy mayors.
The city government should heighten its vigilance, frequently convene interdepartmental meetings, and accelerate the overall pace of prevention and control, rather than having a passive approach, she said.
The rodent problem cannot be solved through poisoning alone and instead must be addressed at the source, she said.
That would include tighter containment of garbage and food waste, more efficient waste collection, and a comprehensive review of weaknesses in underground pipelines and drainage systems, she added.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Liu Tsai-wei (柳采葳) accused the DPP of aggressively politicizing the rodent issue “to the point of obsession,” saying that affiliated groups of the DPP are spreading misinformation online by sharing content falsely claiming that rodents were spotted in Taipei.
Baiting remains one of the key measures in rodent control, Liu said, adding that the city government has increased baiting in response to requests from a DPP city councilor and yet it has been criticized by the same councilor over those efforts.
This has led to speculation that the DPP is using the rodent issue as a political tool in DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) campaign, she said, in reference to media reports suggesting Shen would be tapped as its Taipei mayoral candidate in the November elections.
Political positions might differ, but setting up traps to frame frontline civil servants does nothing to help rodent control efforts or public policy discussions, she said.
Shen’s attempt to ride the rodent issue to political advancement, with full backing from the DPP, has turned what should be a public health matter grounded in professional expertise into Shen’s “stepping-stone rats” for his election campaign, Liu said.
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