Fri, Dec 26, 2003 page10

• MOEA responds to gravel crisis

  A GRITTY AFFAIR The spokesman for the Bureau of Mines said the government would open more gravel extraction sites to compensate for the shortage of material

  • By Jessie Ho / STAFF REPORTER
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  The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday decided to relax regulations concerning sand and gravel extraction, as a shortage of construction material would likely affect the construction of major public infrastructure projects next year.

  The relaxation includes the reopening of the Kaoping River Watershed in southern Taiwan for gravel extraction in the middle of next month, as well as opening more gravel extraction sites for the industry, Chen Tai-hsiung (陳台雄), spokesman for the ministry's Bureau of Mines, said after a meeting.

  The Kaoping River Watershed, the nation's largest gravel extraction site, which supplies 40 percent of the sand and gravel used for construction in Taiwan, was closed for extraction after the Kaoping Bridge collapsed in 2000.

  According to the ministry's estimate, over the past five years, domestic demand for sand and gravel has been 66 million cubic meters annually, with 40 percent extracted from rivers, 15 percent imported from China, and the remainder extracted from the ground or recycled from discarded building materials.

  The construction industry has forecast demand of some 18 million cubic-meters of gravel in the first quarter of next year.

  The industry is concerned that a possible shortage could affect major public works in the nation.

  To meet the industry's needs, the Kaohsiung and Pingtung county governments opened some other sites, mainly land that belongs to state-run Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖), for gravel companies during the past three years.

  But supplies from those alternative sites will not be able to meet the industry's demand, which would negatively affect downstream industries such as the concrete sector and construction companies, Chen said.

  Gravel companies once turned to Hualien County in eastern Taiwan, but found that transportation costs for shipping gravel from there are high, Chen said.

  Hualien supplies around 50 million cubic meters of sand and gravel per year.

  In addition, as an environmental impact assessment is being conducted in the Hualien area, the volume of gravel Hualien can offer is unlikely to alleviate the shortage. According to Taipei Harbor's statistics, the number of ships transporting gravel from the eastern county to Taipei Harbor last month dropped to 46 ships from October's 61 ships, a reduction of 59,862 tonnes of gravel.

  To limit the effect on ongoing public construction, which is estimated to consume 40 percent of all construction-related sand and gravel, the ministry said yesterday that they will allow contractors to apply for special permits to extract gravel from the ground.

  In addition to the short-term solution, Chen said the ministry also agreed to inspect 10 additional rivers for potential quarrying and carry out dredge works in the interim.

  It is estimated that these rivers could provide 22 million cubic meters of gravel a year.

  Furthermore, the ministry will negotiate with related departments to relax restrictions on ground quarries in various sites, he added.

  But the last proposal may not be put into practice for a short time, as residents at the proposed quarry sites may launch demonstrations, as has occured in the past, said Cheng Chen-fan (鄭媜藩), secretary-general of Kaohsiung County Sand & Gravel Association (高雄縣砂石公會).

  "Many sand and gravel plants were shuttered one by one due to the predicament during the past three years," Cheng said. "The government should have acted earlier."

  The shortage also drove up the price of sand and gravel, from NT$700 per cubic meter in northern Taiwan and NT$400 per cubic meter in southern Taiwan, to NT$800 and NT$400, respectively, Cheng said.

  The prices are expected to fall back next year, as the reopening of the Kaoping River Watershed will help to supply 22 million cubic meters of sand and gravel for the first four months of the year, according to the ministry.
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