Typhoon Morakot brought devastating damage to eastern Taiwan and President Ma inspected the disaster area in person immediately afterwards. Since then, he has instructed the Executive Yuan to speed up with reconstruction. The Government has injected more than NTD 3.6 billion in the severely affected Taimali River basin area and reconstruction is beginning to show results through the joint efforts of NGOs and governments from both central and local levels. Taimali River floodbank construction and farmland revival have gradually been completed in sections. In order to safeguard Taitung’s vital traffic links to the outside world, a well-consolidated plan of rail, roads and bridges reconstruction is holding its joint groundbreaking ceremony today. These will significantly increase the flood passing capacity of the Taimali River and provide convenient and safe traffic. Four permanent housing communities have also been completed in the Taitung area.

The Reconstruction Council first gave a brief report on the progress of aggregated reconstruction of the Taimali River to the President, Premier and Taitung residents attending the groundbreaking ceremony. Yan Jiou Rong, the head of the department, indicated that Taimali River reconstruction involves a massive workload with great complexity. The Reconstruction Council has established a river basin consolidating project meeting platform and floodbank farmland revival team which has held 20 meetings in assisting the Taitung County government to rebuild the river, resolve the problem of insufficient land acquisition professionals, and conduct mediation of the land acquisition budget for full subsidization in order to speed up the settlement of land to be acquired. In addition, they will aid in mediation of backfill for floodbank dredging construction to reduce the amount of lost farmland, supervise span increases of railways, roads and bridges, and increase flood passing capacity, implementing “mountains, roads, bridges and river” in a combined action plan. Yan emphasized that before the end of May, 20 floodbank construction projects of the Taimali River will reach overall designed flood protection standards, and that 11 farmland revival construction will gradually be completed in sections. The Reconstruction Council also held 26 permanent housing construction project meetings, including meetings in Taihe Village, ex-Dawu Primary School, Bin-Mao Junior High School, and Kaaluwan second base, four locations completed and resided before Chinese New Year. Eastern and western Kaaluwan base and Tjacuku tribe base are in constant speed-up progress.

President Ma deeply acknowledged the positive progress and results initiated by the Reconstruction Council in Taitung area especially around the Taimali River region after hearing the brief report. The President thanked Deputy CEO Chern Jenn-Chuan and his team for their incredible efforts. The President emphasized that the Government is taking the concerns of residents of eastern Taiwan seriously; when Typhoon Morakot occurred the President led service teams in person to inspect all reconstruction relief work and instructed reconstruction to be carried out at full speed. Other than the reconstruction mentioned above, the Government is also proactively implementing alteration of the SuHua Highway, proceeding with the Hualian-Taitung line railway electrification work and widening of the southbound highway, gradually bringing the living standards of eastern Taiwan in line with those of western Taiwan, so that residents’ lives will be happier and more productive.

Premier Wu reminded construction units that overall flood protection targets must be met before the end of May in order to prevent a second disaster from occurring; railways, roads and bridges shall also be completed next year in May and August respectively upon the 3rd anniversary of Morakot.

The Southern Taimali Bridge joint groundbreaking ceremony and the Taimali River overall reconstruction inspection was held this afternoon on farmland next to the Taimali River. The Secretary General of the Executive Yuan Lin Join-sane, Minister Wu Ching-Ji from the Ministry of Education, Minister Mao Chi-Kuo of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, Taitung County Magistrate Justin Huang, Legislator Liao Kuo-Tung, Kung Wen-Chi, Chien Tung-Ming, Chen Ying, Rao Ching Ling Speaker of Taitung County Council and representatives all attended this grand ceremony. The ceremony began in a pleasant atmosphere with a drum skip formation by local residents and the joyful dances of indigenous residents, followed by presentation of a progress report by the Reconstruction Council, Directorate General of Highways and Railways Administration. President Ma led the groundbreaking with officers and representatives from construction units and the ceremony was successfully concluded with offers of profound gratitude and best wishes from local residents.