Premier Lin Chuan (林全) yesterday criticized Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) officials for their slow repair efforts following typhoons Meranti and Malakas, which left tens of thousands of households in southern Taiwan and outlying Kinmen County without electricity.
Lin received a briefing about losses caused by the typhoons and restoration work carried out by Taipower, Taiwan Water Corp (台灣自來水) and Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) at the Central Emergency Operations Center in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店), and ordered Taipower and Taiwan Water to dispatch a vice general manager or a higher-ranking official to Pingtung County to direct restoration operations.
“They should not return to Taipei until power and water are back on,” Lin said.
Photo: CNA
“It is an extremely painful thing in a civilized society to experience such long power, water and telecommunications outages,” Lin said, adding that he was dissatisfied that a large number of households were still experiencing utility outages.
Kinmen, Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties were among the hardest hit by Typhoon Meranti, which left 1.1 million households without power on Wednesday last week, while Typhoon Malakas on Saturday, coming on the heels of Meranti, further disrupted electricity, water and telecommunications services for thousands of households.
Yesterday, there were still 13,024 households in Pingtung and 2,703 households in Kinmen without electricity, while there were about 1,600 households without water supply and 6,000 without land-line phone service.
Photo: CNA
Taipower said power was not expected to be reconnected in Kinmen until 11pm yesterday and 11pm in Pingtung today, while Taiwan Water said it cannot resume water supply until six hours after power is restored.
Some affected areas in Pingtung have been without power and water for four days, with Pingtung County Commissioner Pan Men-an (潘孟安) repeatedly asking for the government to speed up restoration.
Taiwan Water and Chunghwa Telecom said the delay in repair operations was due to power outages, while Taipower said it was unable to transport necessary machinery to mountainous areas where roads were closed due to typhoons.
“Road closure is no longer an excuse [since Typhoon Malakas has moved away],” Lin said. “Not all the problems can be blamed on the power company. Many [restoration operations] have nothing to do with electricity supply.”
Lin told the companies to be sympathetic and inform affected residents of repair progress in real time to lessen their anxiety, or they might lose confidence in the government.
The Central Weather Bureau yesterday lifted its warning for Malakas, as the storm was moving toward Japan. The bureau also lifted its heavy rain warning, but advised that people living in mountainous areas must still beware of possible mudslides and rock slides caused by constant rain over the past few days.
Meanwhile, the Executive Yuan yesterday announced that Executive Yuan spokesman Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) is to step down on Oct. 1, and the vacancy is to be filled by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator-at-large Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇).
Although it was not immediately clear whether Tung’s resignation was voluntary, Tung said he was told by the premier about the job transition yesterday afternoon.
The Presidential Office later confirmed that Tung would be appointed to the National Security Council.
While media reports said Tung was removed from the post for failure to clearly deliver on government policies, Hsu rejected the allegations, saying that Tung duly performed his duties and the new appointment is to make use of Tung’s expertise in cross-strait politics.
Hsu’s position is to be filled by National Taiwan University Hospital family physician Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源).
Additional reporting by CNA
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