by Hua-chi Kao Taiwan’s problems with environmental protection are patently evident to any casual onlooker. Taipei in particular wages a constant–and often seemingly losing–battle with smog, garbage, impure water, inadequate sewage treatment…and the list goes on. You may find temporary respite from some of Taipei’s urban ills when on campus; but in fact Taiwan University has plenty of its own environmental problems to deal with, many quite urgent. Probably few people know that NTU has, since February 1990, had a special department just for dealing with environmental matters: the Environmental Protection Center (EPC). No big fireworks were set off at its founding, and the center has been very low-key–perhaps too much so –until quite recently, when its newly inaugurated quarterly newsletter started turning up in NTU department offices.
The EPC was initially set up in response to a fine the university received in 1989 due to waste water that did not meet government environmental standards. This incident alarmed university authorities and spurred them to look closely at the problem of laboratory waste and pollutants. An 18-member committee was subsequently appointed to handle related matters. Currently the EPC’s director is appointed by the head of NTU’s General Affairs Department. The center has a consulting committee made up of six professors and associate professors from five related departments, whose task it is to design methods of countering air, noise, and water pollution, and of controlling toxic and radioactive waste on campus. The center has only one full-time standing member in charge of administering environmental protection programs, Ms. Huang Yu-fei 黃鈺斐. All other EPC personnel are contract employees in administrative or janitorial positions. Since its founding, the center has suffered from chronic underfunding; yet it is expected to deal with and control all existing and possible pollution sources on campus. With its considerable budgetary constraints and numerous technical problems, the EPC has chosen to concentrate on smaller, less costly, but still very important anti-pollution tasks. The first of these is helping keep NTU’s chemical laboratories clean and safe by providing for the disposal of dangerous wastes and pollutants. Center workers collect liquid wastes from the labs, then turn them over to Huan Jui環瑞 Ltd., a local waste disposal company on contract with NTU. The EPC has also set up collection centers around campus where faculty, staff and students can bring their recyclables. Every Thursday from about 8:30 to 10:10am, a truck makes rounds to each of the 14 collection sites to pick up cans, aluminum foil containers, and paper. It is the EPC’s responsibility to monitor drinking water quality, along with campus restaurant and lunch box sanitation, and to oversee environmental protection work in each of the university co-ops. The center has also been making efforts to improve the water quality of Drunken Moon Lake. Raising faculty and student awareness of the importance of environmental protection is another key aspect of EPC work. The center has held a number of seminars on such topics as how to control radiation pollution, and lab animal and toxic substance management. There are currently plans to produce a set of video tapes introducing correct lab waste management and lab safety maintenance procedures, the goals of which are to ensure both student safety in the lab and protection of the campus environment. Once the tapes are made, they will be shown at the beginning of the semester in each lab class. In spite of all they have managed to accomplish so far, center staff are not yet satisfied with their achievements. One of the EPC’s long-term objectives is to construct a sewage water drainage system and an incinerator on campus, so that NTU can become self-sufficient in its waste disposal. But the EPC has a long way to go before it will be able to realize this ambitious goal. The biggest problem is lack of funds the cost of the two projects will run into six figures. Moreover, the construction of an incinerator on campus is also sure to draw heavy protest; and the technical difficulties in developing an underground network running under classroom buildings have yet to be overcome. In a word, the tasks of the EPC are many and daunting, and they stand to become only tougher in the future. If you are now wondering how an organization with a regular staff of just three people can do all of these things, you have a very valid concern. The center’s minimalist staff does indeed do all the above, and will continue to take on new challenges in the future. But you can only do so much with so little. The center faces three major obstacles which it eventually must overcome if it is to make further progress in its work: (1) its vague role, (2) its lack of adequate human resources, and (3) insufficient funding. First, the Environment Protection Center’s exact role is not very clear, and the jurisdiction of its authority ill-defined. It does not even have a formal director or qualified employees to carry out its many important tasks. Due to its vague status, it does not have the right to impose penalties or rewards, a constraint which greatly handicaps the center. Its relative anonymity also explains why so few organizations are willing to cooperate with them in the campus recycling effort. Ideally, the EPC should only be a supervisory organization, and not have to take responsibility for implementation. Its main function should lie in planning, bringing in needed technologies, and the like, rather than fussing with trifles such as fixing broken pipes or hauling trash. Human resources are one of the most obvious and urgent problems of the EPC. And the center’s small staff feels deep frustration that no one ever seems to appreciate what they do. As academics in their own right, center staff have their research and other personal concerns to attend to; environmental protection work must be squeezed into whatever time is left. This dual role of EPC staff prevents them from focusing solely on their work at the center, and greatly reduces the EPC’s effectiveness. The center’s weak performance is then noticed and comes under fire. This leads to a loss of confidence, energy, and motivation on the part of the EPC staff. They thus become caught in a vicious circle in which a lack of human resources leads to second-rate work, and second-rate work draws criticism, which discourages the members; the discouraged members then put in less effort than they otherwise would because they feel that no one appreciates them. Furthermore, due to the center’s equivocal status, supervisory agencies have been unable to decide on an appropriate budget for the EPC. And there is not much any organization can do without a steady income guaranteed by a dependable annual budget. So what can we as individuals do to help? The answer is: a lot. We can lighten the EPC’s workload if we all do our part by conscientiously recycling, classifying our trash, filling both sides of every sheet of paper, bringing our own bags with us when we shop, and using eating utensils brought from home instead of disposable ones in cafeterias. Students and faculty should take care to obey lab rules and dispose of wastes and pollutants properly. And most importantly, we should help communicate the urgency and importance of environmental protection to the people around us. If you want to find out more about the EPC, share your suggestions or comments, or lend a helping hand, call 363-0321, extension 2880 or 2881; or log in to the General Affairs Department’s BBS. Don’t hesitate to help, it’s your earth–and campus–too! a
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The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
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