Every year when the northeastern monsoon blows in late autumn, townships located along downstream stretches of the Jhuoshuei (濁水), Dajia (大甲) and Da-an (大安) rivers tend to suffer from serious dust storms. This year has been no different.
Among the hardest-hit towns are Yunlin County’s Siluo (西螺), Erlun (二崙), Lunbei (崙背) and Mailiao (麥寮) townships located near the Jhuoshuei River estuary and Taichung County’s Dajia Township (大甲) on the estuary of the Dajia and Da-an rivers.
“The dust storm problem is especially serious in riverside towns,” Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) said.
The county government has sponsored forums at elementary schools in those townships to teach schoolchildren how to cope with dust storm damage, Su said.
Hsukuang Elementary School in Erlun and Fengjung Elementary School in Lunbei are among the hardest-hit schools.
Lin Huang-jung (林煌榮), the principal at the Hsukuang school, said the school has had to spray water on its grounds a number of times every day during the northeastern monsoon season.
“All classroom windows facing north have to be closed when the seasonal winds blow,” Lin said. “Even then, our desks and chairs are often covered by dust.”
During breaks, schoolchildren play outdoors.
“We always remind them to wear face masks, but our words oftentimes fall on deaf ears,” Lin said.
Schoolchildren tend to return home with their outfits full of dust, the head of the school’s parent association said, and many students often complain about sore throats and irritated eyes.
Two strategies are being tested to counter dust storms: building forest wind breaks and building dams to raise water levels and so prevent winds from blowing up sand from dry riverbeds.
Officials from the Fourth River Basin Management Bureau, which is responsible for managing the Jhuoshuei River, said the bureau has launched a project to plant 7km of trees along the river’s northern bank in Changhua County and the southern bank in Yunlin County to shield the riverbed from the winds.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS