A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator yesterday pushed for the passage of a “geology law” (地質法) that she said could help mitigate disasters caused by Taiwan’s frequent earthquakes.
DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) told a press conference that Taiwan has 5 million people living in the vicinity of 33 active fault lines.
“The government sent a draft of the law to the legislature immediately after the 921 earthquake in 1999, but the draft has been on hold in the legislature for 11 years without being approved,” Tien said.
She said that although the former DPP government had worked hard to push the bill through the legislature, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) did not support it.
She also called on President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to push KMT legislators to approve the bill soon.
Referring to the magnitude 7.0 quake that struck Haiti last week, Tien said that according to Natural Disaster Hotspots: A Global Risk Analysis, published by the World Bank in 2005, more than 70 percent of Taiwan’s landscape is at risk from three kinds of natural disasters, while more than 90 percent is at threat from two.
She said the geology law would require a thorough geological assessment of Taiwan’s landscape and provide important information to the public. The law would also set stricter construction regulations for sensitive areas.
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