The Cabinet yesterday approved a proposal that would earmark NT$50 billion (US$1.56 billion) to a six-year plan to resolve a sedimentation problem plaguing Zengwun Reservoir (曾文水庫), Nanhua Reservoir (南化水庫) and Wushantou Reservoir (烏山頭水庫).
Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) told a press conference following the Cabinet meeting that the three major dams in southern Taiwan were threatened by a significant increase in silt deposits after Typhoon Morakot hit the country last August.
The Water Resources Agency (WRA) said that 91 million cubic meters had accumulated in Zengwun Reservoir and 36 million cubic meters in Nanhua Reservoir after the typhoon, which together had amounted to the total storage capacity of Nanhua Reservoir.
In the Wushantou Reservoir, silt deposits have filled about 44 percent of its storage capacity, it said.
Shih said the draft statute drawn by the ministry would impose a series of prohibitions on development to preserve and restore the upstream part of the watershed areas of the three reservoirs.
If the legislature passes the bill, any new projects to build sediment storage dams should be compatible with the Aboriginal Basic Act (原住民基本法), and these areas would be made off limits to any road construction or expansion projects.
The Cabinet yesterday also approved a proposal by the Sports Affairs Council to promote baseball, which is reeling from a game-fixing scandal involving several players from different teams.
Prosecutors on Wednesday indicted 24 professional baseball players over their alleged involvement in match-fixing scandals.
Sports Affairs Council Minister Tai Hsia-ling (戴遐齡) said the council and the Ministry of Education had proposed not appointing players found guilty of involvement in gambling scandals as teachers or coaches in schools, as well as banning them from playing in the amateur baseball league for life.
Tai said that prosecutors would be stationed in playing fields when the baseball season starts late next month to prevent gangsters from influencing the games.
She added that the government would soon amend the Sports Lottery Issue Act (運動彩券發行條例) to impose heavier penalties on players involved in gambling scandals.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
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Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
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