The Hualien Gravel Industry Association urged the government to ease restrictions on dredging the county’s rivers to help prevent flooding as well as provide more work for gravel companies.
The association made the suggestion in the hope that the central and local governments would heed their call and save the gravel-mining industry.
Citing a government report, the association said gravel firms were only allowed to retrieve 60 percent of the 5.84 million cubic meters of gravel that accumulates each year in the rivers in Hualien County.
It said the restriction should be eased as the rapid accumulation of gravel in the county’s rivers was a serious problem.
The volume of gravel deposits in local riverbeds had reached 146.85 million cubic meters, it said.
This situation usually leads to riverbeds rising above ground level, raising the risk of flooding especially during the typhoon season when silt from landslides also piles up in riverbeds, the association said.
This was the second time the association had called for government assistance to help offset the difficulties it is facing.
The association said on Tuesday that the industry was facing an unprecedented crisis because of the global economic slump and the domestic quota on gravel. It said 80 percent of its 60 members in Hualien County had to send workers on unpaid leave, while 70 percent had been operating for only 10 days over the past three months.
It urged the authorities to allow Hualien businesses to mine more gravel to meet market demand, especially in the northern and western parts of the country, by relaxing the quota.
Prior to 2004, Hualien was exporting between 1.1 million and 1.3 million tonnes of gravel per month, and at least 11.2 million tonnes a year, it said.
About 60 percent of the gravel used in the Greater Taipei area used to come from Hualien, with China and other parts of Taiwan supplying 20 percent each.
However, since 2007, when strict caps on gravel exploitation in Hualien were imposed and the volume of imported gravel from China began to increase, the domestic industry has fallen on hard times, the association said.
It has suffered a fresh blow from the global financial crisis, which has resulted in Hualien County supplying only between 5 percent and 10 percent of the demand for gravel in Greater Taipei, it said.
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