Taiwan: 'Prevention better than cure in case of natural disasters'

President Ma Ying-jeou called Sunday for the country to avoid challenging nature and said it is better to prevent natural disasters than to deal with their aftermath.

Addressing the opening of a national flood control conference in Taipei, Ma said that natural resources are scarce in Taiwan, but natural disasters abound and are an ever-present threat.

Quoting government statistics, he said that 73 percent of the Republic of China's territory and its population are constantly under threat from earthquakes, flooding, typhoons and mudslides.

He noted that, according to Nature magazine, the surface temperature of tropical oceans has increased by 0.5 degrees Celsius over the past 30 years, resulting in the formation of 75 percent more powerful and potentially destructive typhoons in the northwest Pacific.

He said the power of the typhoons that have affected Taiwan has increased, as has the volume of rainfall in the country over the past 20 years.

In the 20th century, global temperatures edged up by 0.74 degrees on average, but in Taiwan the increase was 1.2 degrees, which is one of the major reasons why the typhoon threat is more devastating, he added.

Citing precipitation records, he said that when the devastating Typhoon Herb struck Taiwan in 1996, it brought torrential rainfall of more than 1987 mm, but by 2001 when Typhoon Nari wreaked havoc on Taiwan the precipitation level from that storm was 2319 mm. When Typhoon Morakot hit in August this year, the rainfall it brought was an astounding 2965 mm, he noted.

Natural disasters are unavoidable, but what the government can do is bolster preventive and control measures in advance, he said.

Mother Nature often does not give people time to escape, he said, pointing out that mountain residents and people living near rivers had no time to flee, nor could they be saved, when the mudslides triggered by Typhoon Morakot struck.

"There was not even 72 seconds, let alone the so-called golden 72 hours, to save them," he said When the magnitude 7.3 killer earthquake hit on Sept. 21, 1999, 38 rescue teams from 21 countries came to Taiwan's aid. But there was no such aid from abroad in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot this August. "Few rescue teams would mobilize for typhoon relief, " he noted.

He said that fatalities from Typhoon Morakot could have been as high as 1,046 if rural township and village officials did not have effective evacuation plans in place.

The president spent days and nights in flood-affected areas in eastern and southern Taiwan in August in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot, which killed more than 600 people and destroyed numerous villages.

"The damage that Typhoon Morakot wrought was far beyond our imagination," he said, recalling that a house located 100 meters from a river in the central county of Nantou was washed away before anyone realized the danger.

Evacuating or keeping away from risky places is one of the ways of avoiding damage from natural disasters, but this is not always possible, he said.

"This is the purpose of the national flood control conference, " he said. "I look forward to seeing the start rather the end of discussions at this conference, and hope to see the development of viable strategies that could be used by the government as reference in its effort to improve flood control and prevention." The conference, organized by the Water Resources Agency, brought together the heads of 21 cities and counties and flood-control experts to discuss ways of improving disaster prevention and relief measures.

The discussions focused on post-Typhoon Morakot drainage and reconstruction, measures to handle soil and silt buildups and disasters in catchment areas, flood control and water usage strategies to cope with abnormal weather conditions, and the overall management of catchment areas.

Representatives of disaster affected areas, legislators, Control Yuan members, academics and student representatives also attended the conference.

(By Deborah Kuo) ENDITEM /pc