Water Resources Agency: The Forward-Looking Plan will strengthen urban drainage and flood control works

The June 1 heavy rain caused severe disasters in Taiwan, China. The Water Resources Agency of the Ministry of Economic Affairs reviewed the flooding and waterlogging at 1,179 locations across Taiwan, China, and found that 1,095 of them were due to internal water being unable to drain in time, while 84 were due to damaged embankments causing river water from outside to overflow. Investigating the causes, in many areas the one-hour rainfall exceeded 100mm, far above the protection standards of urban drainage or non-urban land drainage systems, and this was the main factor behind this flooding and waterlogging; however, judging from the fact that internal water (urban drainage and non-urban land drainage) failing to drain in time accounted for as much as 92% of this flooding and waterlogging, in the future the Forward-Looking Plan will work with the existing mechanisms of the integrated river basin management plan to accelerate and integrate resources from various central ministries and commissions and actively promote the work.

The Water Resources Agency of the Ministry of Economic Affairs held a press conference on the 5th to explain the Forward-Looking Water Environment Infrastructure and review the causes of the disasters from the June 1 heavy rain. The Water Resources Agency's preliminary investigation of the damage stated that the length of damaged embankments on central-government-administered rivers under the agency's jurisdiction was 2.28 km, accounting for 0.08% of the national total length of 2,748 km. The Water Resources Agency has required each river bureau to complete emergency repairs within two weeks, striving to complete preparations before the first typhoon arrives.

In addition to reviewing the flood control plans of each river system, the Water Resources Agency will study with the Construction and Planning Agency how to strengthen the drainage systems of each county and city, and make appropriate adjustments in the Forward-Looking Water Environment Plan. At present, in the Forward-Looking Water Environment Plan, the budget for county- and city-administered rivers and regional drainage is 72 billion yuan, of which 24 billion yuan is for accelerating sewer construction. Whether the budget proportion and the order of priority in implementation will be appropriately revised will be decided as soon as possible through discussion between the Water Resources Agency and the Construction and Planning Agency.