A landslide on Suhua Highway in Yilan County earlier this week might have been triggered by mining activity in the old mines near the highway, environmentalists told at a news conference in Taipei yesterday, urging the government to investigate the incident.
The highway’s Jiugongli (九宮里) section near the 112.6km mark was closed from Sunday to Tuesday after a landslide fell down from 185m, blocking the road.
There were no casualties, but many Taipei residents who had traveled to Hualien for the Dragon Boat Festival holiday could not return home before work resumed on Wednesday.
Photo copied by Chiang Chih-hsiung, Taipei Times
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Thursday in a Facebook post said that the highway was closed because of a natural disaster.
She lauded the efforts of the response personnel, who arranged alternative transportation for the people affected.
Citizen of the Earth Taiwan consultant Tsai Chung-yueh (蔡中岳) rejected claims that the landslide happened naturally, saying there was a combination of causes behind it.
Photo: CNA
The government is used to ignoring slope exploitation as a possible cause of landslides, he said.
There are four old marble mines near the Jiugongli section — Tai Shih (台石) mine, Wu Yan (烏岩) No. 2 mine, Pei Hua (北華) mine and Hainan Corp’s (海南實業) Wu Yan No. 1 mine — the organization said.
“Looking at aerial photographs of the landslide you can see the slope is barely covered with grass,” he said, adding that the exploited lands were not duly restored.
“The authorities should probe the causes of the landslide. If it had nothing to do with the mines, they should still provide a better explanation for the cause,” he said.
Concerned with what the group said was the government’s loose management of mines, Citizen of the Earth Taiwan researcher Pan Cheng-cheng (潘正正) demanded that the outdated Mining Act (礦業法) be revised.
“The legislature’s Economics Committee promised to re-examine the act at the onset of this session. However, the Democratic Progressive Party caucus has been pushing their priority bills and have paid little attention to the act,” Pan said.
Article 27 of the act stipulates that land within 150m of national and provincial highways should not be opened up to mining without the permission of the authorities or property owners, she said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Department of Mines had asked miners to sign documents promising not to exploit lands within 150m of highways, but had failed to enforce the regulations, Pan said.
The organization demanded that the authorities investigate the landslide’s cause in depth and disclose the location of all mines along the Suhua Highway.
A strategic environmental assessment of the mines should be conducted as well, Pan said.
The department issued a statement saying that an examination of the area where the landslide occurred revealed that heavy rain was the cause.
The mines, one active and three closed, are at some distance from where the landslide occurred, the department said.
Directorate-General of Highways Section Chief Nanao Chen Wen-chang (陳文昌) said further investigation is needed.
“We have invited experts and academics to look into the issue and we will publish a report later,” Chen said yesterday by telephone.
The Jiugongli section of the highway has been cleared of debris, but clean-up efforts in the surrounding area will continue for several more days, he said, adding that heavy rains might cause delays.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS