In the interest of speeding up subsequent reconstruction efforts to care for the lives and livelihoods of residents in reconstruction areas, and achieve the goal of joyful living and employment, the Executive Yuan’s Morakot Post-Disaster Reconstruction Council called its 29th committee meeting on May 16th. Convener Premier Sean Chen hosted the meeting, in which the decision was made to extend unfinished projects and efforts in the Morakot post-disaster reconstruction project to a maximum duration of two years. During this extension period, the Special Act can be applied to these unfinished projects in order to eliminate the red tape and simplify related administrative procedures and speed up the process. The organization of the Reconstruction Council will also be extended and continue to serve residents of reconstruction areas through coordinating, evaluating, making decisions, promoting, and supervising reconstruction related matters to fulfill the spirit of the 30th amendment to the Special Act and respond to the concern and expectations of many legislators and local parties.

The Reconstruction Council stated that the President announced the enactment of the Morakot Post-Disaster Reconstruction Special Act on August 28th, 2009 for the duration of three years with an original end date of August 29th, 2012. The Reconstruction Council stressed that although the Legislative Yuan approved the amendment to extend the 3-year Morakot reconstruction period by another two years on May 24th, 2011, in the past year the Executive Yuan has still required that all units implement reconstruction related affairs assertively and without any deceleration. All efforts, regardless of whether they lie in infrastructure, construction of permanent housing, rebuilding of culture and spirit, industrial reconstruction and more, must be executed at utmost speed and quality to act as a benchmark and serve people affected by disaster in every way possible.

After nearly three years of reconstruction after Morakot, concrete results are now evident. In terms of homeland reconstruction, the government has provided 216.5 hectares of land, simplified administrative procedures, and joined efforts with NGOs to support permanent housing construction for disaster survivors. A total of 3,213 permanent housing units in 36 locations are now complete, benefitting more than 10,000 people. In addition, destruction to 1,139 of the 1,145 school campuses which were affected in the disaster has now been repaired.

In terms of infrastructure, 97% of post Morakot reconstruction projects are complete. 231.07 million m3 of gravel in rivers and streams has been dredged, and these river dredging efforts will continue without pause. All of the river, soil and water conservation, and forest reconstruction projects are now complete, along with opening up Provincial Highway 18 (Alishan Highway) to buses, reopening the Alishan Forest Railway’s Shenmu and Zhushan lines, and rehabilitation of the Taimali River. In terms of indicative construction projects, Jiasian Bridge, Cishan Bridge, Sinfa Bridge, Dongpu’s Sun-Moon bridges, Shuangyuan Bridge, and more have all been reopened after reconstruction.

In terms of industrial reconstruction, this stage of guidance is now complete for the agricultural, travel, local specialty, indigenous specialty, and cultural creative industries. A total of 8 industrial reconstruction demonstration points are now complete. 492 hectares of lost farmland have been refilled and planting resumed. The Pulami project team was formed to assist in development of industries within permanent housing communities, more than 30 project meetings convened. Various employment services have provided 265,000 job opportunities. Local agricultural specialty produce promotional sales were also hosted for reconstruction areas and tourism in reconstruction areas also promoted continually to stimulate the local economies.

Although much progress has been made in terms of reconstruction, the efforts are not yet complete. There are still items which require fortification in reconstruction, such as embankment safety and the extension of long term river dredging, Provincial Highways 20, 21, and 24, connection road system in the indigenous people’s villages, permanent housing sites of Chiayi County’s forestry site 152 and Kaohsiung City’s site 38 Jia, construction of sustainable communities for permanent housing sites and the subsequent industry, culture, employment, and community public facility operation and management. All these items require continual assistance and implementation.

The Reconstruction Council pointed out that, after evaluations in various departments and discussions and review by the Reconstruction Council, a total of 46 unfinished projects will remain after the three year duration of the Special Act’s implementation. This comes to a total of NT$4.7 billion, which amounts to 4.6% of the total amount allotted in the special budget, NT$102.976 billion. Funds to continue implementation of these projects will come from the originally allotted Special budget. Subsequently, the two year extension of this Reconstruction Act will be presented to the Executive Yuan for approval and implemented accordingly.
 

Achievements of Morakot Post-Disaster Reconstruction