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Government vows to tackle ongoing mudslide problem

Government officials yesterday vowed to do more to prevent the "floods and mudslides that have become killers in Taiwan."

"Unwise human exploitation of mountain slopes has made Taiwan more vulnerable to natural disasters," Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) said yesterday.

"Residents in the mountain areas have become terror-stricken by the rains," the premier said, speaking at a seminar held by the Council of Agriculture yesterday.

Chang said the government would quickly hammer out a plan to prevent mudslides such as those brought on by Typhoon Toraji.

The premier also called for a joint meeting of the Cabinet's two special task forces to address typhoon-related issues -- including the distribution of subsidies to victims, future rescue efforts and the mass relocation of residents in disaster-hit areas. "A service center has been set up to address typhoon-related issues," minister without portfolio Chen Chin-huang (陳錦煌) said yesterday.

Chen said that two branch offices in eastern and central Taiwan had been set up to help.

The minister said the premier has designated a mass relocation project to move residents out of mudslide areas as a long-term Cabinet policy.

The premier instructed the task force to carefully evaluate the projects' complications and work out solutions so that the plan could be carried out as soon as possible.

Chen Po-chih (陳博志), head of the project's task force, said yesterday that residents' wishes and their employment arrangements would be taken into consideration over the next two weeks as the task force finalizes the relocation plans.

Another minister without portfolio, Huang Jung-tsun (黃榮村), also the head of the Cabinet's 921 earthquake reconstruction committee, proposed that all passes leading to mountains in high-risk areas be sealed.

Huang acknowledged however that the suggestion would likely face obstacles. Huang also said he thinks a mass relocation of residents in central mountain areas would be inevitable.
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