President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the premier yesterday vowed to accelerate reconstruction of areas devastated by Typhoon Morakot yesterday, ahead of the first anniversary of the deadly storm.
Apologizing to the typhoon victims for their suffering in the past year, Ma, in his weekly online speech, said the Cabinet had created a Post-Typhoon Morakot Reconstruction Commission immediately after the disaster, while starting a thorough review of the nation’s disaster-prevention mechanism to strengthen preventive measures.
Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said the government had devoted more than NT$150 billion (US$4.6 billion) to reconstruction work and would complete 1,480 permanent houses for survivors by next Sunday, which would account for 70 percent of applicants.
PHOTO: CNA
Survivors who did not apply for permanent housing until April will have to wait until next month to get a house, Wu said, while promising to provide necessary assistance to survivors with different needs.
Ma thanked the commission for its work and expressed his gratitude for enterprises and non-profit organizations, including the Tzu Chi Foundation and Foxconn Technology Group, for helping with the permanent housing project and other reconstruction work.
“Thanks to great displays of love from Taiwanese people, we came out of the difficult situation early and proceeded smoothly with reconstruction work ... That said, there is more to do and I expect us to continue with reconstruction,” he said.
Typhoon Morakot devastated southern Taiwan in August last year, leaving about 700 dead and a number of villages buried under mudslides.
Ma and Wu will attend a forum commemorating the one-year anniversary of Morakot in Kaohsiung today to discuss reconstruction with experts.
According to sources, villagers from areas hit by Morakot are planning to visit Taipei next weekend to protest in front of the Presidential Office against the slow pace of reconstruction as well as forced displacements.
Additional reporting by Staff Writer
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