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Ecological disaster awaits
The recent spill in Hungary of 700,000m3 of toxic red mud, a combination of
soil, chemicals and heavy metals, should act as a clear warning to Taiwanese
about the dangers of the corporatization and industrialization of landfill
dumping.
Taiwan, a country with a large heavy industry, has had a recent string of
disasters, both natural and man-made. The combination of being in a typhoon
zone, as well as having a history of negligent corporations and a soft-toothed
Environmental Protection Agency, has lead to a number of small-scale ecological
disasters.
These range from the fires at Formosa Plastics Group and its affiliate Nan Ya
Plastics Corp, a series of incidents where students complained of toxic air from
factories located close to school grounds and the recent scaffolding collapse,
which killed several highway construction workers: Health and safety seem to
come a distant second to corporate savings.
Hence, in this context of a lack of oversight in the development of large scale
industrial projects, the building of a new landfill in Tainan County”¦s Longci
Township (Ąs±T) is indeed cause for concern.
A landfill, in the middle of a typhoon zone, would be prone to -overflow, and
like the lake of toxic slurry in Hungary, it would be liable to cause a massive
ecological problem for the residents of Longci.
While the waste management company tasked with building and operating the site
has an eye on profit making, the cost of any post-accident clean up would be
shouldered by the taxpayers rather than the company, who stands to gain in the
short term by cutting the building costs. It is for these very reasons that not
only should those in Tainan be up in arms about the building of the Longci
landfill, but all Taiwanese should be wary of such a culture of heavy polluting
industry.
Proponents of the landfill argue that the project will benefit the economy by
providing jobs (30 to 50) and returning money to the citizens of Tainan through
taxation. However, such moves are placating measures that mask the real
concerns. It creates the spurious argument that economy is of more value than
ecology and that heavy polluting is justified if it is economically viable.
This is a specious argument that attempts to quantify standards of living with a
numeric value. This argument also fails to address the very criticism that is
being levied at the landfill project, which is not whether the project is
economically viable, but whether the project is safe.
When a culture of permissiveness is developed, favoring corporate interests over
the public”¦s, it is only a matter of time before Taiwan will be hitting
international headlines with its own ecological disaster.
ROBERT HYLAND
Gushan, Kaohsiung City
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