Heavy rain brought by Typhoon Morakot produced 1.2 billion cubic meters of sediment from four counties in southern Taiwan, enough to build 650 Taipei 101 buildings, Chinese-language CommonWealth magazine reported yesterday.
CommonWealth began examining the damage wrought by last August’s Morakot in December. Reporters traveled to the Kaoping (高屏), Laonong (荖濃) and Cishan (旗山) rivers several times to check the geological changes.
They found sediment levels in the rivers were greater than any other river in the world. The upper stream of the Kaoping River flows through areas of sandstone and shale, and once they are loosened by mudflows, large chunks of earth slide into the river.
PHOTO: HSIEH YIN-CHUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
They said the government had spent NT$116.5 billion (US$3.5 billion) rebuilding the disaster areas. The effort may prove futile as the Central Weather Bureau said severe rainfall was expected this spring.
CommonWealth writer Rebecca Lin (林倖妃) said that there was 400 million cubic meters of sediment in the rivers, and about 800 million cubic meters of sediment further upstream. When it rains, that sediment will be washed into the river and cause more damage, she said.
Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) of National Taiwan University’s civil engineering department said the government could prevent damage by allocating funds to establish facilities to observe changes in reservoir water levels and rainfall.
“The government has been ignoring the importance of collecting basic information,” he said.
Chern Jenn-chuan (陳振川), deputy chief executive officer of the Morakot Post-Disaster Reconstruction Council, said that the changes brought by Typhoon Morakot were “unprecedented.”
“It has gone far beyond our understanding of the damage that can be caused by just one typhoon or a flood,” Chern said. “We have seen multiple incidents of damage can occur just after the spring rain.”
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