The plum rains finally came to a stop. They differed from the past, coming in big bursts of heavy rain, with many areas receiving as much as 600mm of rain in a day. This caused flooding in many urban areas, landslides in mountainous areas and flooding in many public buildings. If the plum rains had not stopped, there would have been serious problems.
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is often called the gateway to the nation. The government has invested huge sums of money in the airport, but as soon as there is a typhoon, or during this year’s plum rains, it is flooded and the roof leaks. It is indeed an eyeopener to see an international airport where buckets are used to catch leaking water and the shopping arcade is flooded. Worst of all, the southern runway, which was constructed at a cost of NT$3 billion (US$98.55 million), was also damaged, causing chaos and turning the airport into an international laughingstock.
Furthermore, NT$4.3 billion was spent on the construction of the National Taichung Theater designed by famed Japanese architect Toyo Ito. Despite this, the building was flooded during a typhoon in April last year that inundated the administrative offices, the small theater and the basement. On Thursday last week, it was flooded again.
The countdown to the Universiade may have begun, but early this year, the Tianmu Baseball Stadium, which had been repaired to the tune of NT$120 million, was leaking, and during the plum rains the tennis arena, which was built at a cost of NT$1.9 billion, leaked. These are all big and prestigious projects, but they have now resulted in a loss of face.
These problems were mainly caused by torrential rains brought by abnormal weather, with the downpours exceeding the designed drainage capacity. With extreme weather likely persisting, drainage capacity in both public and private buildings must be increased.
This might be easier said than done in Taiwan, where some elected representatives are wont to manipulate construction contracts. There are repeated reports of corruption, irregularities and inefficiency in public construction agencies, while various interest groups grow stronger and exert undue influence over vital projects.
As a result, the engineering sector is becoming increasingly careless. While the quality of major projects is slipping and government supervision is becoming increasingly lax, industry associations are unable to control the situation.
Major projects are fraught with problems, but in the end they are all accepted due to manipulation and deceit. The disasters caused by the plum rains have exposed the true scale of the problem, and when major projects are completed, officials fall over each other to praise the results. The buildings may be huge and feature the latest design, but they still leak when it rains.
The government should pay special attention to how, despite its considerable investment in flood control resources, it is clear that the intensity of heavy rainfall is increasing at a faster pace than its efforts to deal with such weather.
The government must make an extra effort to improve flood control and prevention projects. If it fails to do so, future flooding disasters would give way to growing public complaints and plummeting government approval ratings.
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