Water levels at the Swallow Grotto Trail (Yanzikou, 燕子口步道) barrier lake in Hualien County’s Taroko National Park have stabilized, with inflows and outflows in balance, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said yesterday.
Huang Chun-tse (黃群策), head of the agency’s Hualien Office, said the overflow from the lake remains steady and that the dam, composed mainly of marble and granite, is structurally stable.
Because of its composition, the dam is less likely to generate large amounts of sediment or mudflows, unlike the barrier lake that formed on the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪), which overflowed catastrophically during a storm last month, he said.
Photo courtesy of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency’s Hualien office
The new Swallow Grotto lake formed on Friday after a landslide in the upper reaches of the Liwu River (立霧溪), Huang said.
The water is flowing from the west entrance of the Jin Heng Tunnel through the east entrance, and over the Ludan Bridge (魯丹橋) into Ludan Creek (魯丹溪), then rejoining the Liwu River, he said.
Experts have been commissioned to plan a risk-reduction project to gradually shave the upper section of the dam to improve drainage, Huang added.
However, heavy rainfall brought by seasonal monsoon winds and Tropical Storm Fengshen made access difficult, and unstable roadbeds in the area pose safety risks, which have delayed the work, he said.
The Central Weather Administration said that the current weather system could bring heavy rain to northern Hualien, with up to 2.5cm expected in the Swallow Grotto area today and as much as 3.4cm tomorrow.
The agency urged the public to stay away from the lower reaches of the Liwu River and nearby waterways due to the risk of flash floods and landslides.
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
RSS