Premier Simon Chang (張善政) on Saturday declared Tainan the nation’s showcase region for soil stability improvement in response to the the magnitude 6.4 earthquake that struck southern Taiwan on Feb. 6, killing 117 people and causing extensive damage.
However, under current municipal ordinances, people who lost property because of soil liquefaction as a result of the earthquake are not entitled to housing-related aid or subsidies.
The Tainan Public Works Bureau said it confirmed soil liquefaction occurred in 14 locations in four Tainan districts: Jhongsi (中西), Northern (北), Annan (安南) and Sinshih (新市).
Bureau inspectors said they suspect soil liquefaction occurred in 1,004 locations in clusters throughout the city, mainly in areas near East Central District’s Wenhe Road, Annan District’s Huian Street, Fuan Road and Anhe Road, and Sinshih District’s Sanmin Street.
Ten roads in Annan District need repairs — nine of which are located on a damaged grid of roads, with Huian Street at its center in Siding Borough (溪定) — and another eight damaged roads in Jhongsi, Northern and Sinshih districts also need repairs, the bureau said.
Road repairs are scheduled for nine of the 10 damaged roads in Annan District from March 10 to May 1, while repairs in other districts are to be carried out between March 10 and May 15, it said.
Siding Borough Warden Tsai Chung-li (蔡崇立) said that while Chang’s pledge to combat soil liquefaction in Tainan is encouraging, it does not assuage the concern that people in his borough who lost their homes to soil liquefaction are not entitled to housing subsidies or financial aid under existing city ordinances.
His constituency needs low-interest mortgages and cash to cover moving costs — the type of financial assistance people affected by disasters usually qualify for — a demand not met by discretionary disaster relief funds that amount to a few thousand New Taiwan dollars per household, Tsai said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said that the Tainan City Government needs a firm legal basis to help its citizens and the Executive Yuan should step up by using executive orders to funnel aid to households affected by soil liquefaction until the municipal standards for disaster relief are amended.
Chen also said that the city government should make haste to amend the Categories and Standards of Assistance for Windstorm, Earthquake, Fire and Explosion Disasters (風災震災火災爆炸災害救助種類及標準), with the aim of completing a draft by today and to promulgate it on March 10.
The bureau yesterday said it began referencing existing work by National Cheng Kung University experts to aid its project to categorize soil liquefaction levels throughout the city in a publicly available information package.
During his tour to inspect affected areas of the city, Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) said that the city government is in the process of compiling the data needed for the package, which would grade districts affected by the earthquake in two classes according to the severity of soil liquefaction, as well as damage caused by the earthquake.
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