The Ministry of Environment has announced the establishment of three environmental emergency response sites in Hualien, Nantou and Kinmen counties, which are expected to expedite emergency response to chemical emergencies.
Chemicals Administration Director-General Tsai Meng-yu (蔡孟裕) on Tuesday said the three response sites were set up mainly to overcome challenges like geographical limitations and climate impact.
For example, a fire broke out in a laboratory at Hualien County’s National Dong Hwa University on April 3 last year, but connecting roads had collapsed due to an earthquake, preventing the ministry’s technical team from reaching the scene to provide help in time, he said.
Photo: CNACNA
Kinmen is an outlying island that relies on air transit as its primary means of connecting to the outside world, he said, but air transit is vulnerable to external factors such as typhoons or heavy fogs, which can ground flights, he said.
Counting the three newly established sites, there are a total of 13 such environmental emergency response units nationwide, and each has a technical team consisting of four personnel with professional disaster response training, Tsai said.
The leaders of the teams in Hualien, Nantou and Kinmen counties have seven to 20 years of disaster response experience with extensive hands-on knowledge, he added.
According to Minister of Environment Peng Chi-ming (彭?明), the ministry has spent a year planning the establishment of an independent administrative institution as the “national chemical safety response center.”
That is to prepare where possible for the likelihood of increased chemical emergencies, especially as lithium batteries are being widely used in electronic products such as mobile phones or electric vehicles, he said.
Fires at a landfill could rage for more than 10 days and cannot be promptly extinguished simply by spraying water from aircraft, he said, citing the example of a fire that occurred at a temporary waste storage site in Tainan’s Houbi
District (後壁) on Nov. 21.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, although waste lithium batteries have been identified as the main cause of fires occurring in many other landfill sites over the past few years.
The draft proposal to establish a national center for chemical safety response has been sent to the Executive Yuan for approval and is expected to be sent to the legislature for review later this year, Peng said.
National Fire Agency Director-General Hsiao Huan-chang (蕭煥章) said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to set up a “world alliance for disaster management” to enhance cooperation with other countries in disaster prevention and rescue, particularly in international information exchanges and joint training or exercises.
The establishment of the alliance aims to not only provide a platform for inviting disaster response experts to Taiwan to share their expertise and experiences, but also help promote relevant equipment or response doctrine developed in Taiwan with the world, he said.
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
City buses in Taipei and New Taipei City, as well as the Taipei MRT, would on Saturday begin accepting QR code payments from five electronic payment providers, the Taipei Department of Transportation said yesterday. The new option would allow passengers to use the “transportation QR code” feature from EasyWallet, iPass Money, iCash Pay, Jkopay or PXPay Plus. Passengers should open their preferred electronic payment app, select the “transportation code” — not the regular payment code — unlock it, and scan the code at ticket readers or gates, General Planning Division Director-General Liu Kuo-chu (劉國著) said. People should move through the
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) today released images of the military tracking China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) movements during the latest round of Chinese drills around Taiwan. The PLA began "Justice Mission 2025" drills today, carrying out live-fire drills, simulated strikes on land and maritime targets, and exercises to blockade the nation's main ports. The exercises are to continue tomorrow, with the PLA announcing sea and air space restrictions for five zones around Taiwan for 10 hours starting from 8:30am. The ministry today released images showing a Chinese J-16 fighter jet tracked by a F-16V Block 20 jet and the
RSS