|
Protest held over plan to build oil
refineries
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff Reporter
Changhua County residents hold up banners with slogans protesting against
Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Corp’s plans to build oil refineries on the
coast of the county’s Dacheng Township in a demonstration in front of the
Presidential Office yesterday.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Residents from Changhua County voiced their objection to Kuokuang Petrochemical
Technology Corp’s plan to build oil refineries on the coast of the county’s
Dacheng Township (大城) in a demonstration in front of the Presidential Office
yesterday.
About 100 Changhua County residents protested the project, holding up banners
with slogans opposing the oil refineries and vowed to stand up against the
refineries, even at the cost of life.
“I think most of you know what has happened at the Formosa Plastics Group’s oil
refineries recently and we don’t want that to happen to us, to our children and
grandchildren in the future,” president of the Fangyuan Township (芳苑)
Association against Pollution Lin Chi-min (林濟民) said at the demonstration. “We
don’t want to live in fear and we don’t want our children to have to wear masks
everyday when they go to school.”
Lin was referring to two accidents in July when fire broke out at Formosa
Plastics Group’s oil refineries in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮) which
caused a massive cloud of toxic dust to engulf nearby townships.
Besides the two fires, frequent minor leaks of toxic gases from the oil
refineries have troubled area residents since operations began in 1998, forcing
students in nearby schools to wear surgical masks when going to school.
The Mailiao oil refineries are located on the south side of the mouth of the
Jhuoshuei River(濁水溪), while the planned Kuokuang oil refineries are to be
constructed on the north of the river mouth.
“Taiwan is a small country, how many highly polluting oil refineries can we
take?” Lin asked. “Tens of thousands of residents and farmers in nearby areas
have petitioned for a halt to the project, yet the government has not responded
positively.”
“What kind of government is it that would use its power to help a private firm
build oil refineries, which is only in the interests of the firm, and put the
health of hundreds of thousands of local -residents at stake?” Lin said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), who took part in
the demonstration to show her support, urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to not
only talk about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but to turn his words into
action.
“As of last year, around one third of our petrochemical production was exported,
which means that we already have sufficient petrochemical production to supply
domestic industries and no need for more new plants,” she said. “We’re not
opposed to the petrochemical industry, but we’re opposed to unrestrained
expansion of the industry.”
A Presidential Office official received representatives from the demonstrators
and took the petition. The official, however, did not make any concrete response
to the protesters’ demands.
Separately, another group of demonstrators yesterday also staged a protest in
front of the Presidential Office. The group protested against the -construction
of Provincial Highway No. 26 connecting Taitung County and Pingtung County,
saying the road passes through the only habitat of the endangered green turtle
on Taiwan proper, as well as many other geologically sensitive areas.
“After local residents expressed concerns that the highway may damage the
coastal ecology, the government presented a revised project with a tunnel to
avoid -going along the coast, however, only 3km of the 12.5km highway would be
through a tunnel,” said Chu Yu-hsi (朱玉璽), executive director of the Ecological
Education Center.
The group said that the entrance to the planned tunnel would be directly in the
green turtle’s habitat and would endanger their survival, and that the
construction itself would cause significant damage to the coastal ecology.
|
