With the Cabinet to decide next week whether to rebuild the section of the Central Cross-Island Highway between Kukuan and Techi, local politicians and environmental groups yesterday disagreed over the fate of the fragile link road.
The highway segment was about to be reopened early last month when Tropical Storm Mindulle hit the nation, crippling the road once more with falling rocks, landslides and mudflows.
During a Council for Economic Planning and Development hearing broadcast live on TV yesterday, Taichung County Commissioner Huang Chung-sheng (
"If it's not fixed, we estimate that transportation costs from fruit and vegetable farms in Lishan will increase by NT$300 million a year," Huang said.
He said that agriculture in the town was worth more than NT$6.4 billion a year, or 40 percent of the county's agricultural output.
A closed road would also continue to cause tremendous inconvenience to those Aborigines who commute from mountainous areas to the plains, Huang said.
Indigenous people make up 34 percent of the population of Hoping township, one of the areas hardest hit by Mindulle. About 20,000 Abo- riginal people have already relocated elsewhere in the county.
Huang said that in addition to dredging rivers, the government should consider building tunnels or bridges instead of reconstructing road segments perched along steep slopes. He said officials also had to ensure that land and water resources were protected.
Huang was supported by Lin Rong-jin (
"Some government officials have jumped to the conclusion that there's no point to fixing roads damaged by Mindulle, even before inspecting the disaster zone to see the situation for themselves," he said.
Lin was referring to Council for Economic Planning and Development Vice Chairman Chang Ching-sen (
A team of geologists will report to the Cabinet on whether the highway does indeed affect such locations, but Chang said that the answer was already evident after looking at satellite photos.
Premier Yu Shyi-kun has instructed an ad hoc task force to recommend whether or not to rebuild the segment of the highway within the week.
Chung Ting-mao (鍾丁茂), a spokesman for the Taichung chapter of the Homemakers' Union and Foundation, said that the reconstruction would be a waste of money.
"The government has spent about NT$1.3 billion repairing roads since the 921 earthquake in 1999. It's estimated that the damage caused by Mindulle may cost an additional NT$6 billion," Chung said. "Why do we spend so much taxpayer money to repair a road located in such a geologically sensitive area that suffers damage even after ordinary rainfall?"
Chang Feng-nan (張豐年), a doctor and a board member of the Caring Nature Association in Tai-chung City, called on the Cabinet to stop fixing damaged segments of the highway as well as hydro-electric plants built along the highway that were damaged by Mindulle. He also proposed that the Techi Reservoir, which he said was in danger of collapse following the devastating earthquake four years ago, be demolished.
"While most of the people who I see in my practice are opposed to the idea of reconstructing damaged segments of the highway, local politicians are voicing exactly the opposite opinion," Chang said. "I'm curious to know whether they don't realize the severity of the problem or if they're just trying to manipulate public opinion."
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS