Otters and leopard cats cannot return home; river groups criticize water environment improvement projects as ecological killers
The Water Environment Improvement Plan is part of the Forward-Looking Infrastructure program, with NT$250 billion allocated to improve environmental and ecological functions, yet it has been sharply criticized by civic groups for destroying rivers' original ecological habitat functions, reducing natural purification effects, degenerating into landscape projects, and even destroying the homes of otters and leopard cats, causing otters to be unable to get ashore and increasing the risk of leopard cats being killed by vehicles.
The "Taiwan Rivers and Streams Network," composed of civil river citizen groups, held its second evaluation, voting out three "rotten apples" and two "golden apples" among water environment improvement projects. Experts pointed out that of the 48 water environment projects evaluated this year, 22 caused ecological degradation, a ratio as high as 46%, and demanded that central and local authorities genuinely review the problems of excessive and low-quality projects, and specifically respond to the public's expectations for "water environment improvement."
River groups hold evaluation, select rotten apples among water environment projects
The Taiwan Rivers and Streams Network, composed of river conservationists, professionals, and community college members, once again this year conducted a civil evaluation of the "Water Environment Improvement Plan" within the Forward-Looking Infrastructure program, scoring based on four major aspects: ecological function improvement, social function, project execution procedures, and design.
The Rivers and Streams Network selected three rotten apples, with Kinmen County containing two in one go, including the "Jinsha Stream Watershed Water Environment Improvement Plan" and the "Lieyu Qingyuan Lake Water Environment Improvement," while Miaoli County had one, the "Xihu Stream Overall Environment Creation Tongluo Section." As the second-phase water environment budget review is imminent in November, the civic groups demanded that the Water Resources Agency immediately conduct a review.
Vertical concrete revetments replace natural vegetation, otters cannot get ashore; scholars sharply criticize: spending tax money to create ecological killers
Professor Lee Ling-ling of National Taiwan University's Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, who has long studied otter ecology, stated that the area along Jinsha Stream in Kinmen is a hot spot for Eurasian otter activity. The project unit, ignoring experts' and advisors' reminders about the stream's ecological characteristics, still engaged in massive excavation, replacing the stream bank's natural vegetation with vertical concrete revetments, forcing otters to swim far to find a place to get ashore, severely damaging the original habitat ecology.
Professor Lee Ling-ling further named another rotten apple: Lieyu Qingyuan Lake, which failed to consider the wetland's ecological characteristics, greatly disturbed the wetland, excavated the lake bottom, removed the original subsoil for other uses, then backfilled with the excavated soil, removed the original old trees, and even tiled the lakeshore, severely harming the ecology and bringing the lake's ecological diversity to near extinction.
Lee Ling-ling said that erroneous water environment projects violate the habits of wildlife in the habitat, or block water flow and cause the original wetland ecological diversity to be destroyed, turning "water environment improvement" into an ecological killer instead.
Leopard cat expert: erroneous water environment improvement increases the risk of leopard cats being killed by vehicles
Miaoli County, which previously sparked social controversy over a leopard cat park, was once again named this time for continuing to create projects that kill leopard cats by vehicles. In this evaluation, the "Xihu Stream Overall Environment Creation Tongluo Section" project received the rotten apple award.
Wang Yu-huang, chairman of the Taiwan Ecological Society and director of the Leopard Cat Conservation Association, stated that the riverside area of the Tongluo Section of Xihu Stream was originally a habitat for leopard cats and wildlife. The project unit built a bicycle path here, not only destroying vegetation but also fragmenting the ecological habitat, and opened a wide, straight flood control road, causing serious obstruction to the movement of leopard cats living here.
Wang Yu-huang emphasized that water environment improvement is a debt-financed project and should be used prudently. Now it not only destroys natural landscapes, hydrology, and climate functions, but the annual maintenance and management costs further worsen Miaoli's already difficult financial situation. As for the policy goal of improving river ecological environments, it is fundamentally counterproductive.
