In response to public criticism of the Taipei City Government not having planned any budgets for “old building checkups” this year, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said the service is financed by the city’s second reserve fund rather than a budgetary item, adding that subsequent actions to bolster building structures, rather than the checkup, is key to tackling dilapidated buildings posing potential threats to public safety.
The SET-TV on Tuesday reported that the city had terminated a project offering residents free inspections of the structures of their apartment buildings, and that it worried some Taipei city councilors and residents living in old buildings.
Ko said it was a misleading media report, adding that the second reserve fund, which customarily covers the checkups, had been put into place and that relevant agencies might apply for the funding to inspect old buildings.
“This was never a problem. The Taiwanese media give me headaches,” he said.
Asked what policies Taipei introduced to ensure building safety, given that New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) on Tuesday said all buildings in New Taipei City erected before the 921 Earthquake in 1999 would be qualified for free checkups, Ko said he is averse to “knee-jerk” reactions, and that policies to promote residential safety should be comprehensive.
“The old building checkups are not the point. The point is what happens after the checkup,” he said.
Ko criticized the nation’s “shallow” culture, economy and politics, which he said had often prevented Taiwanese from finding solutions to difficult issues.
Citing policies the city government devised to address murky tap water seen in the wake of Typhoon Souldelor in August last year, Ko said these policies required about six months from preliminary research to implementation as they would involve the excavation of 70 backup wells to and more than 50 water taps at schools.
Similarly, plans to boost a city’s resilience against earthquakes and land liquefaction should not be finalized in two weeks, Ko said.
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
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