Taiwan’s premier, Zhuo Rongtai, recently announced that Taiwan has entered the so-called“Land reclamation era”, saying that the land and waste from various counties and cities on the island will be“Recycled” to fill the sea. The island criticized the DPP authorities under the guise of land reclamation to deal with waste, “The sea can not become a dumping ground for waste.”. According to a report by Taiwan’s“China Times” on the 9th, Zhuo Rongtai recently claimed in the Kaohsiung Port that Taiwan has entered the so-called“Land reclamation era for the whole of Taiwan.” The Kaohsiung Port has as much as 58 million cubic meters of reclamation space, the Taiwan authorities are considering transporting the remaining earth and rock from other parts of Taiwan to the Kaohsiung Port for disposal. However, Kaohsiung is worried that in the future, waste land from other counties and cities on the island will“Invade” Kaohsiung, resulting in increased environmental protection costs and traffic pressure. It does not want to pay for the plans of the Taiwan authorities.
Chen Lina, a member of the Kaohsiung City Council from the Kuomintang, questioned that Zhuo Rongtai hopes to solve the problem of waste rock and soil in the island engineering through reclamation and overall scheduling flexibility, however, the waste rock and soil from the digestion project was originally planned and taken care of by the counties themselves. Now Zhuo has released the statement of“Overall dispatch”. Does he plan to ship a large amount of waste rock and soil from other counties and cities to Kaohsiung, using Kaohsiung as a dumping ground? Chen Lina complained bitterly that by opening other counties and cities to Kaohsiung’s waste rock and wasteland, perhaps the island’s“Waste rock and Wasteland Rebellion” will be solved, but the sand and gravel trucks and mobile sources of pollution in the small harbor will increase dramatically, this will have a huge impact on traffic and the environment in Kaohsiung. Chen Lina named the list of mayors of Kaohsiung City Chen Qimai can no longer be silent, must make a public statement. The Kaohsiung City Government said Sunday that it would not accept waste rock and soil from outside the city.
Environmental groups on the island say the sea should not be the final destination for waste rock, whether used in Taipei, Taichung or Kaohsiung. Earlier, illegal businesses in the island dumped waste rock and soil generated by the excavation of building foundations at will, but the Taiwan authorities failed to enforce the law, triggering a“Waste rock and soil rebellion” on the island. Now the Taiwan authorities are throwing out“Land reclamation” again, moving problems that should be dealt with on land to the oceans and coasts“Is a classic externalisation of risk, shifting immediate pressures to long-term, irreversible costs”.
Public opinion on the island has also lambasted the DPP for its“Policy u-turn”. When the DPP was not“In power”, it fiercely opposed land reclamation from the sea. According to the island writer“Adrift Island”, the DPP now promotes support for land reclamation from the sea, and has even declared a“Great reclamation era”, self-defeating. Some comments on the island said that from“Anti-nuclear” to“Re-nuclear”, from“Anti-reclamation” to“Great Reclamation”, the Democratic Progressive Party authorities have staged a dramatic policy change in just a few months, what appears to be an adjustment to the energy crisis and the Wasteland Conundrum reveals a deeper problem: treating big policy as a political tool rather than a value proposition, “I am what I am today and I am what I was yesterday”, can such a party still be trusted?