Legislators across party lines yesterday pushed for the passage of a bill aimed at preventing a repeat of the tragedy that occurred in Kaohsiung County’s Siaolin Village (小林) last year when Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan and wreaked havoc on the south.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) contended that the disaster, in which many of the village’s residents were buried alive by a massive landslide, could have been prevented if the village’s geological changes were monitored beforehand under the stipulations of the draft geology act.
The proposed bill under consideration obliges the Ministry of Economic Affairs to designate regions with special geological characteristics or that are vulnerable to geological disasters as “geologically sensitive areas.”
PHOTO: CNA
It also stipulates that a commission should be established to review proposals to designate, change or abolish the listing of areas as “geologically sensitive” and that no fewer than half the members of the commission be experts and academics.
Urging that the draft geology act be passed into law during a provisional legislative session to be held later this month, Tien said the draft act would require the government to make public a list of geologically sensitive areas nationwide and hopefully prevent catastrophic landslides.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Lin Tsang-min (林滄敏) also backed the legislation, saying it was not too late to take precautions after suffering such severe losses.
“Better late than never. Without a geology law, private properties can still be built and public construction projects developed on geologically sensitive areas,” Lin said.
Lin said, however, that the draft legislation, which was approved by a legislative committee in May, was unlikely to clear the full legislature in the middle of this month because of a tight legislative schedule.
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