The Taipei City Government yesterday opened a geotechnical engineering office, becoming the first local government to take the step toward better land management amid frequent mudslides during typhoon season.
The office, part of the Department of Economic Development, will handle disaster prevention measures concerning hillsides, hillside houses, recreational facilities and trails.
Speaking at a launch ceremony, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said the city government had begun working to open the office during his predecessor Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
The office will integrate construction management and land and water conservation, he said.
“Frequent typhoons and extreme weather have highlighted the importance of preserving slopes, and it is necessary to create this office to strengthen the management of slopes as hillside areas make up half of the city’s land” Hau said.
Hau said 55 percent of Taipei is on sloped land, with 24 localities classed as dangerous. The city government will finish construction to stabilize those areas this year, he said.
Department head Chen Hsiung-wen (陳雄文) said the office would use Google Earth as a surveillance tool to prevent illegal construction projects on hillsides.
Meanwhile, the city government yesterday upgraded the status of the municipal Institute for Animal Health to an “Animal Protection Office.”
Hau said the new office would integrate matters that used to be managed by different departments, including capturing stray animals and preserving wildlife, with the goal of making the city more friendly to animals.
Yen I-feng (嚴一峰), director of the office, said the office’s priority would be rescuing mistreated animals, in addition to managing 220,000 registered cats and dogs in the city.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
RSS