The Ministry of the Interior will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of public facilities based on population growth in different areas within four years to plan urban renewal with an eye toward disaster prevention, Minister of the Interior Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源) said yesterday at the Legislative Yuan.
Inspired by the documentary Beyond Beauty: Taiwan From Above (看見台灣), the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee yesterday held a meeting to ask several government agencies about their action plans for environmental protection and coordination of national resources — including forest conservation, water management and national land planning.
The documentary is a 90 minute film by director Chi Po-lin (齊柏林) that shows a bird’s-eye view of the country’s beauty and sorrow — the beautiful landscapes and destruction caused by overdevelopment and pollution.
In his report, Lee said that “basically, Taiwan is not a safe nation,” because it is often hit by earthquakes and various natural disasters caused by extreme weather exacerbated by climate change, including droughts and floods.
Overdevelopment has also caused mudslides, reservoir sedimentation, land subsidence and other problems, he said.
He said that as the population structure changes, urban planning must be adapted, but current urban plans for the six major cities are designed for a population of 25 million people, when in fact there are only about 19 million people living in these cities.
“We are now reviewing how to deregulate the unnecessary land reserved for public facilities,” he said. “We expect to deregulate at least one-third of it within four years, so local governments can base urban planning on disaster prevention and make the city more beautiful.”
Land expropriation can be avoided and government expenditure saved by deregulating land reserved for public facilities, and using the released lands for establishing urban disaster prevention systems, he said.
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Chinese spouse and influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China videos that threaten national security, the National Immigration Agency confirmed today. Guan Guan has said many controversial statements in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” and expressing hope for expedited reunification. The agency last year received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification. After verifying the reports, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and explain her actions. Guan
GIVE AND TAKE: Blood demand continues to rise each year, while fewer young donors are available due to the nation’s falling birthrate, a doctor said Blood donors can redeem points earned from donations to obtain limited edition Formosan black bear travel mugs, the Kaohsiung Blood Center said yesterday, as it announced a goal of stocking 20,000 units of blood prior to the Lunar New Year. The last month of the lunar year is National Blood Donation Month, when local centers seek to stockpile blood for use during the Lunar New Year holiday. The blood demand in southern Taiwan — including Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Chiayi, Pingtung, Penghu and Taitung counties — is about 2,000 units per day, the center said. The donation campaign aims to boost
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) said a magnitude 4.9 earthquake that struck off the coast of eastern Taiwan yesterday was an independent event and part of a stress-adjustment process. The earthquake occurred at 4:47pm, with its epicenter at sea about 45.4km south of Yilan County Hall at a depth of 5.9km, the CWA said. The quake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in several townships in Yilan and neighboring Hualien County, where it measured 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the CWA said. Lin Po-yu (林柏佑), a division chief at the CWA's Seismological Center, told a news conference
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