The Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday it would not to use the drill-and-blast method to construct an experimental tunnel after the plan angered residents of Siaolin Village, Jiasian (甲仙) Township, in Kaohsiung County.
The plan was proposed by a team led by the Chinese Institute of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering (CICHE) that aimed to obtain data for a probe into reasons behind the collapse of a mountainside that killed more than 500 people in the village during Typhoon Morakot in August.
In late September, the government temporarily suspended the construction at the request of local residents.
The CICHE, along with other professionals in related fields, was commissioned by the PCC to determine the cause of the disaster, which was attributed by some to the construction of a massive tunnel to divert water from two major rivers to a nearby reservoir.
The CICHE initially wished to construct an experimental tunnel by drill and blast method to test preliminary conclusions about the impact of the water-diversion project on the environment an official with the PCC who declined to be identified yesterday said.
PCC Chairman Frank Fan (范良銹) turned down the proposal on Friday after residents expressed concerns at two public hearings that the project might cause further environmental damage.
Residents near areas hard hit by Morakot had reacted angrily to plans for a neighboring mountain slope to be blown up with explosives in attempt to find out how a massive mudslide triggered by the typhoon left hundreds dead in Siaolin Village.
Local residents said they were afraid that the explosives could trigger another mudslide — and jeopardize reconstruction efforts.
Tsai Song-yu (蔡松諭), who organizes the Siaolin Village Reconstruction Committee, also accused authorities of conducting the investigation in a non-transparent manner and added that representatives of survivors of the disaster were not invited, while investigators were selected by authorities without public input.
The anonymous PCC official said yesterday that the final result was expected to come out at the end of this month, as scheduled.
“The project will not be carried out without people’s consent,” the official said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY LIN CHIA-CHI AND LEE YI-RU
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