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.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai