A government official who has warned that the nation’s high-speed rail line could become inoperable in 10 years yesterday said the government had put forward a plan to resolve a land subsidence problem.
“Taiwan High Speed Rail can operate safely without hazards when the plan to close 1,000 deep wells in Changhua County and Yunlin County in 10 years is implemented thoroughly,” Public Construction Commission Minister Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) said.
Lee (who doubles as a minister without portfolio) called an intergovernmental meeting to finalize a plan to address the land subsidence problem, which is mainly attributed to overuse of underground water.
Under the plan, the government aims to reduce the amount of underground water pumped from wells that extend down more than 50m, known as deep wells, by 210 million tonnes by 2021, Lee said.
The section of the high-speed rail line that suffers the worst subsidence lies between Changhua County’s Sijhou Township (溪州) and Yunlin County’s Tuku Township (土庫), where the average subsidence was 6.4cm, data released by the Water Resources Agency last month showed.
Ground subsidence problems can be solved in 10 years with subsidence in the area decreasing to less than 3cm after the 1,000 deep wells are closed, Lee said.
Lee said agricultural irrigation would not be affected because it uses water that is mostly pumped from shallow wells.
Alternative water resources will partly come from the Hushan Reservoir (湖山水庫) in Yunlin County, whose water-holding capacity is about 50 million tonnes, and partly from water conservation measures that can assist industries to increase the water reuse ratio from 10 percent to between 50 percent and 60 percent, Lee said.
EXPANSIONIST: China deploys an average of 40 to 50 warships and coast guard vessels daily in the South China Sea, despite pledges not to militarize the region, an official said China is attempting to expand its influence across the First Island Chain and increase pressure on Japan by sending coast guard vessels into waters off of Taiwan under the pretext of maritime negotiations with Japan and the Philippines, a national security official said yesterday. China’s recent actions in the waters east of Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are attempts to establish dominance in First Island Chain waters, said the official who declined to be named, adding that this is “expansion disguised as law enforcement.” Framing China’s actions solely as a cross-strait issue is a serious misjudgment that
Through analyzing fossil evidence, a research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) discovered the largest endemic bird to have lived in Taiwan, naming it Pavo miejue, or extinct peafowl (滅絕孔雀). The Mikado pheasant, which is printed on the back of the NT$1,000 bank note, was previously believed to be the biggest endemic bird to Taiwan. The research team’s findings suggest that Pavo miejue lived during the Pleistocene epoch tens of thousands of years ago. It is the first endemic extinct bird species discovered and formally named in Taiwan. The study was coauthored by NTU Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修),
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to suspend its automated Skytrain service connecting Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 starting on July 1 to facilitate connection works for the upcoming Terminal 3, the airport operator said today. Passengers and staff who need to travel between the two terminals after the suspension can instead use the Taoyuan MRT or the airport's 24-hour shuttle bus service, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. The Taoyuan MRT Airport Line directly links the two terminals, while the shuttle buses are to operate around the clock, the company added. The Skytrain provides free transportation between the airport’s two terminals for travelers and
Taiwan ranked 42nd in terms of peacefulness among 163 countries, down five places from last year, according to this year’s Global Peace Index. With an overall score of 1.751, Taiwan dropped from 37th last year, the report published by the global Institute for Economics and Peace showed. The overall score measures a country’s level of peacefulness using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators across three domains — ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, and militarization. While Taiwan ranked 42nd worldwide, it was listed in ninth place among the 19 Asian-Pacific countries in the report, after New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia,
RSS