The government has found 63 Aboriginal villages to be unsafe or partly unsafe in the wake of Typhoon Morakot and is still communicating with residents concerning their relocation, Council of Indigenous Peoples Minister Sun Ta-chuan (孫大川) said yesterday.
At a press conference at the Government Information Office, Sun touted the progress the government had made in helping Aborigines who lost land and property to rebuild their hometowns and find employment.
The government commissioned geologists to assess the safety of 90 Aboriginal villages hit by Typhoon Morakot last August. The geologists concluded that 44 were unsafe for habitation, 19 partly unsafe and 27 safe, Sun said.
Sun said 19 villages were in desperate need of land restoration and should be off-limits to various human activities depending on the location. For example, some were no longer suitable for farming. Those 19 villages included Jialan (嘉蘭), Fushan (富山) and Dajhu (大竹) in Taitung County, among others.
However, the government will not designate the villages as unsuitable for certain activities without the consent of local residents, Sun said. At the same time, it will insist that relocation is necessary for safety reasons.
The government says about 70 percent of areas affected by Typhoon Morakot and its floodwaters were Aboriginal villages.
Sun said the council had offered about 2,700 jobs lasting between two months and six months each to Aborigines in affected areas to clean and rebuild their villages.
The council will continue to work with local governments and agricultural authorities to help affected Aborigines sell their agricultural products and will hold more nationwide promotional activities to support their agricultural industry.
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