This is the 215th issue of "Bay Area Lookout".
Lai Qingde said that the water control budget is functional, what is the picture?
Super Typhoon "Gemei" hit Taiwan, and Kaohsiung City was flooded by wind and rain, and discussions on Kaohsiung's water control on the island have continued in the past few days. Taiwan regional leader Lai Qingde said on 26 June in Kaohsiung Meinong that the flooding situation in the Qishan area is less than that of the "Morakot" typhoon, "showing that the budget for water control in recent years has played a role." In this regard, Xu Yuzhen, a representative of the Chinese Kuomintang, questioned: "In the face of the vast ocean of people's homes, Lai Qingde can still be complacent, is this kind of government that ignores the suffering of the people what we want?" ”
Kaohsiung flooding situation Source: "Now News Network" (Taiwan)
On August 8, 2009, Typhoon Morakot devastated southern Taiwan, killing nearly 700 people.
Hsu Yuzhen pointed out that the "forward-looking infrastructure construction plan" prepared by the DPP authorities will run from September 2017 to August 2025, with a total funding of NT$840 billion, which will be implemented in five phases. NT$769.6 billion has been allocated for the first to fourth statutory budgets, and NT$70 billion is expected for the fifth phase. In order to meet the needs of land security under climate change, Prospective Construction has allocated NT$180.7 billion for water environment construction to accelerate water control, water supply and hydrophilic infrastructure construction.
Hsu Yu-zhen said: Over the past 20 years and more, the Taiwan authorities have spent more than NT$110 trillion on their public budgets, special budgets, and fund budgets for water control, but the effectiveness of water control will be questioned after every heavy rain. "In addition to reviewing the budget and expenditure, we also need to examine whether there is a man-made problem with this flooding. Why do you have a basement that becomes a detention pond and a garage that becomes a large swimming pool? ”
Guo Zhengliang, a former public opinion representative from Taiwan, predicted on the island's current affairs program that the green camp will certainly take this opportunity in the next session to create another special budget for water control. He mentioned that Lai Qingde said in Kaohsiung that this was much better than when "Morakot" struck in 2009, when one floor was flooded, and this time it was 30 centimeters. Guo Zhengliang couldn't help but say that he saw a large number of them flooding to his waist, and when Lai Qingde went to Meinong, the water had receded, and he did not reach Meinong at the worst of the disaster, and Meinong Creek almost flooded the bridge at one point.
Taiwan current affairs commentator Li Yixiu analyzed in a current affairs program that Lai Qingde said these words in Kaohsiung, there is a high probability that a new version of the "forward-looking budget" will come out, and he is determined to be an "opposition party", whoever dares to block this budget, the hat of the "accomplice" of the future flooding will be buckled on whose head, Lai Qingde is already preparing to lay out the DPP election in 2026.
What exactly has the DPP "looked ahead"?
The "Forward-looking Infrastructure Plan" is a plan launched by former Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen in 2017, which allocates funds for projects in five directions, of which the "water environment construction" section mentions that about 200 square kilometers of flooded area should be increased and improved to enhance disaster prevention capabilities.
However, since the launch of the program, Taiwan's disaster preparedness has not been significantly improved. Usually there is a natural disaster, and there is a flooding disaster in the central and southern regions, and the problem of water control comes to the table, and it is no longer resolved. Li Hongyuan, former head of internal affairs in Taiwan, mentioned the efficiency of the island's water control budget in a recent public speech, questioning that in recent years, politicians have developed the bad habit of "busy saying how much budget to make up as soon as the water is flooded", but "the money spent is already twice as much as the Netherlands". Therefore, it is necessary to find out the flooding link first, and then prescribe the medicine and prepare the budget.
Public opinion on the island questioned that many ponds had been filled up, resulting in a massive flooding in Kaohsiung. Source: Taiwan's "United News Network"
As early as 2021, Guo Zhengliang broke the news that 250.7 billion "hydrophilic environmental budget" in the 880 billion (NT$) forward-looking budget is mostly used for environmental beautification and has nothing to do with dealing with water control issues. He pointed out that in the early days of the implementation of the plan, most of the counties and cities were ruled by the Democratic Progressive Party, and many people drew up water-friendly environmental plans based on their connections.
Guo Zhengliang said that the "hydrophilic environment plan" is the easiest to write, usually focusing on beautification, and the quick results can be praised as political achievements, so there are many such plans. Relatively speaking, water control is the most difficult, there are many typhoons in Taiwan, as long as the typhoon comes, things will be blown away. He said that the river management department actually has a lot of budgets, and almost all of them make up a budget and put it away, and if there is a problem in any place, they will allocate funds to see who has the ability. However, after the completion of the breakwater, road surface renovation and other projects, the typhoon comes and floods, and the only way to do it again is to repeat it.
In response to this endless cycle, Guo Zhengliang said that the most criticized thing at that time was that the original budget of the agricultural department should be used for such general repair projects, and the special budget should be reserved for some large projects. However, what he observed was that a lot of this budget was used for general projects, and the special budget had five major projects, and even green energy was put in, which made him quite skeptical and puzzled. He said: Forward-looking infrastructure construction is in essence a "supplementary budget for counties and cities," and what counties and cities are not normally able to do or have no money to do should be reported at this time and receive subsidies from the DPP authorities with the ability of the county mayors.
Where did the money for Kaohsiung go?
Although it is said that "getting subsidies" depends on their ability, Kaohsiung City, as one of the base camps of the "green camp", has never received less money. According to Taiwan's "United News Network", according to the report of the island's audit department, the first three phases of Kaohsiung's "forward-looking plan" spent nearly NT$14.4 billion on water environment construction, second only to Tainan City's 14.8 billion, of which NT$5.5 billion was spent on 25 detention ponds, accounting for about one-third of Kaohsiung's forward-looking water budget. The report quoted a senior public works person in Kaohsiung as saying that Kaohsiung's forward-looking water resources consume too much money in the detention pond, and if these funds are actively used for the reconstruction of rainwater sewers and box culverts, they may not be so miserable.
Baoyeli Detention Pond on Clear Road, Kaohsiung Source: Taiwan's "United News Network"
The person said that there are three main reasons for the flooding in Kaohsiung this time, the first is the lack of wetlands around Kaohsiung's Love River, all of which are built with high-rise buildings, and the natural rainwater is full and directly flooded into the surrounding residential areas; The second is that Kaohsiung was originally divided into counties and urban areas, and after the merger of the two, the underground drainage system was not integrated, resulting in the drainage of Fengshan Mountain not being discharged to Kaohsiung City, and the drainage of Kaohsiung City had to be discharged bypassing the county; The third is that cement parks have also been built around the detention ponds, which have not played a good role. He said that the cost of Kaohsiung's "forward-looking plan" is too much for the detention pond, and a detention pond costs an average of NT$200 million, and if these funds are actively used for the reconstruction of rainwater sewers and box culverts, they may not be so miserable, and whether the wide-covered detention pond meets the needs of extreme weather does need to be rationally reviewed after the typhoon.
Li Qingguo, a veteran media person on the island, said in a commentary article on Taiwan's "Zhongshi News Network" that although the flooding in Kaohsiung is related to heavy rainfall in a short period of time, it cannot be denied that whether the city's disaster prevention work is in place is the core factor in whether natural disasters will expand into man-made disasters. During Korea's brief tenure as mayor of Kaohsiung, he repeatedly stressed the importance of "road lights and clear ditches", which was ridiculed by the DPP at the time, and now the heavy rain brought by a typhoon has made many Kaohsiung people begin to remember that Korea Yu sounded simple, but it was the key to urban governance, because this is the key to protecting people's lives and property.
She said that Kaohsiung City opened Taiwan's first ecological detention pond in 2005, and now Kaohsiung City has a total of 25 detention ponds from north to south, ranking first among all counties and cities in Taiwan. On July 11, the Water Conservancy Bureau of the Kaohsiung Municipal Government advertised in the media with the title of "New Multi-functional Flood Detention Pond, Building an Ecologically Resilient City in Kaohsiung" to publicize the achievements of the Kaohsiung City Government in improving flood control capacity and improving long-term drainage difficulties.
Author丨Li Yi, the chief writer of Shenzhen Satellite TV Direct News