No words can describe the anguish this author experienced following Greater Kaohsiung’s gas pipeline explosions and the numerous lives the incident has taken and wrecked.
Realizing that the tragedy resembles a nightmarish scenario the author had forewarned in a Taipei Times article (“Ticking bombs threaten Taiwan,” June 4, 2013, page 8) makes the torment even more unbearable.
Could the incident have been prevented? Who is to blame? Will it happen again? A host of questions naturally rush through one’s mind at such a moment.
The answer may sound cruel: Yes, it will happen again and Taiwanese are to blame. No, the accident cannot be prevented.
For decades, Taiwanese have been living in a fissure, with gleaming towers built on ground under which tons of ticking bombs are buried. In Taipei, open sewers can be seen in almost every alleyway.
A practice that should not occur in a modern country is almost the norm across the nation. It does not take a medical specialist to realize what disaster it can cause if, God forbid, an epidemic erupts.
Taiwanese must refuse to live in chaos and fear. The first order of business to reach that goal must be a reorientation of each citizen’s view of life. Tolerating matters that are intolerable is not life. Accepting expedience with no regard for order must be rejected.
A case in point, and a chaotic scene in plain sight for every citizen to see with their own eyes are the totally disorganized store signs that line the streets of cities big and small. Public walkways and store fronts with uneven paving, crammed with racks of merchandise blocking the path of pedestrian’s adorn every city block.
Yet people turn a blind eye, not realizing it could be a detonator, a trigger, a fuse for something much worse than a pipeline explosion.
At this juncture, life will, and must, go on. However, it has to go on with a new sense of urgency and seriousness. The lesson the tragedy is communicating to us all cannot simply be swept under the rug.
In the short term, and prior to reactivating the pipelines, the integrity of the remaining pipeline system must be ascertained. Confidence, once shattered, can be extremely hard to rebuild. Mistrust, once planted, cannot be easily removed.
In the longer term, and considering the reported lack of documents showing all existing pipeline layouts and their maintenance records, both the industrial sector and the government must cooperate to map out the system.
Modern technology and advance tools derived from oil and gas exploration are available to map out underground structures, such as ground penetrating radars, ultrasonic probes, advance drilling bits and tethered robots, to name but a few.
Once mapping is redone, color coded markers identifying hazards should be installed above ground.
All pipelines, long and short, must have shut-off valves at multiple locations and at regular intervals. It is also possible to install gas sensors in existing traffic lights. In addition, residential households should be encouraged to keep fire extinguishers, and communities should be organized and prepared.
Taiwan wants to be an advanced society. Taiwanese do not want to live in fear. To both ends, members must act in a responsible way expected of a citizen of a truly advanced country.
That may be a tall order, but there is simply neither a short cut nor an excuse not to.
Kengchi Goah is a senior research fellow at Taiwan Public Policy Council, USA.
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