Residents of mudslide-ravaged Shangmu village
The Council of Agriculture (農委會) said the case would encourage the relocation of other residents facing the threat of mudslides.
Shangmu village has been affected by mudslides since Typhoon Herb struck the island on 1996.
The increasing number of mudslides caused by the 921 earthquake have forced Shangmu victims to decide to move, said Hsieh Tsai-lang (
Officials said that residents whose lives and properties are at risk from mudslides have repeatedly tried to have their homes relocated to nearby national forest land that is operated by National Taiwan University as experimental forest.
The villagers, however, failed to persuade the National Taiwan University Experimental Forest Administration (
The relocation, said officials, is the first case on the island in which mudslide victims have moved to state-owned forest land without being charged for the land.
The Council of Agriculture said the Shangmu village case would be helpful in encouraging other communities threatened by the risk of mudslides to move.
But the relocation of a village is never easy given the difficulty of finding appropriate land, said Wang Chung-kai
The residents of Wukung borough
But they are still waiting for the government to purchase the land needed for their relocation, said Wang.
Two-thirds of the communities affected by mudslides in the aftermath of the 921 quake are located in Nantou County, according to the county government.
Officials said the earthquake has loosened the soil in some regions, causing more mudslides.
Meanwhile, another primary school that was destroyed by the last year's quake has also decided to rebuild its campus in the experimental forest run by National Taiwan University.
PLA MANEUVERS: Although Beijing has yet to formally announce military drills, its coast guard vessels have been spotted near and around Taiwan since Friday The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday. Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week. Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it
CHINA: The activities come amid speculation that Beijing might launch military exercises in response to Lai’s recent visit to Pacific allies The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said China had nearly doubled the number of its warships operating around the nation in the previous 24 hours, ahead of what security sources expect would be a new round of war games. China’s military activities come amid speculation Beijing might organize military drills around the nation in response to President William Lai’s (賴清德) recent visit to Pacific allies, including stops in Hawaii and Guam, a US territory. Lai returned from the week-long trip on Friday night. Beijing has held two rounds of war games around Taiwan this year, and sends ships and military planes
Five flights have been arranged to help nearly 2,000 Taiwanese tourists return home from Okinawa after being stranded due to cruise ship maintenance issues, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday. China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have arranged five flights with a total of 748 additional seats to transport 1,857 passengers from the MSC Bellissima back to Taiwan, the ministry said. The flights have been scheduled for yesterday and today by the Civil Aviation Administration, with the cruise operator covering all associated costs. The MSC Bellissima, carrying 4,341 passengers, departed from Keelung on Wednesday last week for Okinawa,
China is deploying its largest navy fleet in regional waters in nearly three decades, posing a threat to Taiwan that is more pronounced than previous Chinese war games, the Ministry of National Defense said today. Speaking in Taipei, ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang (孫立方) said the scale of the current Chinese naval deployment in an area running from the southern Japanese islands down into the South China Sea was the largest since China held war games around Taiwan ahead of 1996 Taiwanese presidential elections. China's military has yet to comment and has not confirmed it is carrying out any exercises. "The current scale is
RSS