The government will next month present possible solutions — including sealing wells in Yunlin and Changhua counties — to resolve the problem of land subsidence along the high-speed rail line, Public Construction Commission (PCC) Minister Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) said yesterday.
Earlier this week, Lee said that underground water and land subsidence issues were cutting short the life span of the high-speed railway to “no more than 10 years.”
Lee told a press conference in Taipei that the government had decided to phase out the use of water pumped from wells that extend down more than 50m, but would allow shallow wells that are mostly used for agricultural irrigation.
Photo: CNA
Lee said the government would assist local residents who use deep-well water to seek alternative sources to minimize the impact.
The government will also conduct a survey on the use of water wells in industrial parks in Yunlin and Changhua where land subsidence has become a problem, before coming up with a proposal, he said.
It will commission a consultancy to study the correlation between earth subsidence and the height and weight of buildings in the affected areas to determine whether it is necessary to impose limits on constructions along the railway line, he added.
Lee had previously said he planned to set a limit on the height and weight of buildings within 3km of the high-speed railway, as heavy structures can accelerate land subsidence.
Safe operation and the life of the high-speed rail system could be extended once the problem of earth subsidence is improved, he said.
On Tuesday, Control Yuan member Chen Yung-hsiang (陳永祥) described government measures to check and cap wells, as well as exhorting farms and industrial companies to save water, as “approaches that are too passive” and said that “pumping of underground water should be banned across the board.
Chen also proposed that more reservoirs be built in the two worst-affected counties to cut the need for underground water extraction.
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