Premier Frank Hsieh (
When asked whether the Water Resources Agency or Taiwan Water Corp (TWC) should be held responsible, Hsieh said he was waiting for the Ministry of Economic Affairs to recommend whether or not blame should be assigned.
If anyone wanted to resign, however, Hsieh said that person should tender his or her resignation to Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (
PHOTO: LIN MENG-TING, TAIPEI TIMES
According to Cabinet Spokesman Cho Jung-tai (
Hsieh didn't have time to focus on accountability in Taoyuan yesterday because he got caught up with another water problem -- this time in Tainan County.
A water main connecting Nanhua Reservoir (南化水庫) with Nanhua (南化) Township broke yesterday. The pipeline supplies about 800,000 tonnes of water a day to a water treatment plant downstream on the Kaoping River (高屏溪).
Despite villagers' protests, water authorities began fixing the main yesterday morning, estimating that it would take three days -- if all went well -- to complete the repairs.
The villagers were upset because this was the third time the main had broken in the past 14 months. Fixing just one segment of the pipeline at a time would not resolve the problem, they said.
The first break occurred in May last year in Tongho (
Local residents want the government to replace the entire main and provide compensation for the losses they suffered as a result of the breakdowns. They also threatened to take to the streets to try to block the latest repair job.
TWC chairman Lee Wen-liang (李文良) said his company plans to start replacing the water main at the beginning of next year with the goal of finishing the project by the end of the following year.
Tainan County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (
Su is seeking re-election in the year-end elections.
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