Typhoon Soudelor caused a manifold increase in the turbidity of Taipei’s water supply. Residents flocked to stores to buy bottled water and the Taipei City Government was heavily criticized for its handling of the situation, as it is responsible for the management of catchment areas, including the Feitsui Reservoir.
Former Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) called on Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to look into the matter. Ko said the muddy water came from the Nanshih River (南勢溪), and that the central government should check the river upstream, while the Forestry Bureau has said the problem was caused by a road collapse. The Ministry of Economic Affairs blamed the city government for its decision to release muddy water into the water treatment plant.
The mud-slinging between the local and central governments did little more than make things more murky. The priority should be to ascertain the source and to identify the culprit: Only then can a permanent solution be found. Next, the response measures must be analyzed, so the operating procedure can be changed in anticipation of future weather events.
The Feitsui Reservoir takes water from the Beishih River (北勢溪), not the Nanshih River. Aerial photographs show the Beishih catchment area is fine, and that there are no serious issues with the Feitsui Reservoir. It is only at the Gueishan (龜山) stretch of Sinwu Road, downstream from where the two rivers converge to become the Sindian River (新店溪), that their waters enter the Chihtan Purification Plant. It follows that the water that enters the reservoir from the Beishih River is not the problem: It was the Nanshih River that brought the muddy water into the plant.
Chihtan cannot handle water that muddy. The problem is entirely sourced in the upper Nanshih River and, irrespective of whether the mud came from a landslide along the Dongjhakong River (東札孔溪) or from the collapse of Sinzeng Road, the ministry or the bureau should come up with a solution.
Government officials say land maintenance is being conducted along the Nanshih River, but in this case the typhoon was too strong. While partly true, it also shows the government’s efforts fall far short of holding off nature’s destructive power.
Even when the muddy water flowed into the purification plant, there was still the option of closing the flues to prevent the water from getting into city supplies, although this would have meant cutting off the supply for several days. The choice between cutting the water supply and allowing muddy water into the supply was a major decision, and Deputy Taipei Mayor Teng Chia-chi (鄧家基) confirmed that the city government chose the latter. When the typhoon had passed, it had to accept residents’ complaints that they were supplied with muddy water, had to buy bottled water and had to clean water tanks.
The Taipei City Government needs to amend its standard operating procedure. Before a weather event such as this typhoon, it should remind the public to stock up on water, so that if the water turbidity exceeds recommended levels, the purification plants can be shut down and the water supply cut off. When the water clears, the supply can come back on. It is just that in a typhoon’s aftermath, when people want to clean things up, if there is suddenly no clean water, it is no surprise that they get angry. Here it came down to choosing the lesser of two evils.
The war of words over this issue demonstrates that even in public policy debates, political agendas get in the way of different levels of government, government departments and political parties. Nobody is interested in finding the facts; it is all about shirking responsibility and pointing the finger of blame. This attitude does not help prepare the nation for the next weather event or improve disaster response procedures. This is the greatest disaster that the public faces.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been expansionist and contemptuous of international law. Under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), the CCP regime has become more despotic, coercive and punitive. As part of its strategy to annex Taiwan, Beijing has sought to erase the island democracy’s international identity by bribing countries to sever diplomatic ties with Taipei. One by one, China has peeled away Taiwan’s remaining diplomatic partners, leaving just 12 countries (mostly small developing states) and the Vatican recognizing Taiwan as a sovereign nation. Taiwan’s formal international space has shrunk dramatically. Yet even as Beijing has scored diplomatic successes, its overreach
After more than a year of review, the National Security Bureau on Monday said it has completed a sweeping declassification of political archives from the Martial Law period, transferring the full collection to the National Archives Administration under the National Development Council. The move marks another significant step in Taiwan’s long journey toward transitional justice. The newly opened files span the architecture of authoritarian control: internal security and loyalty investigations, intelligence and counterintelligence operations, exit and entry controls, overseas surveillance of Taiwan independence activists, and case materials related to sedition and rebellion charges. For academics of Taiwan’s White Terror era —
After 37 US lawmakers wrote to express concern over legislators’ stalling of critical budgets, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) pledged to make the Executive Yuan’s proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget a top priority for legislative review. On Tuesday, it was finally listed on the legislator’s plenary agenda for Friday next week. The special defense budget was proposed by President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration in November last year to enhance the nation’s defense capabilities against external threats from China. However, the legislature, dominated by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), repeatedly blocked its review. The
In her article in Foreign Affairs, “A Perfect Storm for Taiwan in 2026?,” Yun Sun (孫韻), director of the China program at the Stimson Center in Washington, said that the US has grown indifferent to Taiwan, contending that, since it has long been the fear of US intervention — and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) inability to prevail against US forces — that has deterred China from using force against Taiwan, this perceived indifference from the US could lead China to conclude that a window of opportunity for a Taiwan invasion has opened this year. Most notably, she observes that
RSS