Central‑south floods prompt opposition demand for water review, greens urge cooperation.

Taiwan has recently been affected by a low-pressure trough and heavy rainfall, resulting in flooding in multiple areas across the central and southern regions and drawing widespread public attention. Regarding the disaster losses and the effectiveness of water management, the Kuomintang (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan held a press conference today, publicly demanding that the Executive Yuan and relevant ministries prioritize disaster relief above all else. They called for a comprehensive general inspection report on water management in the southern region within one month, while also demanding full transparency regarding the allocation and effectiveness of central government funding injected into flood control in recent years. In response, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus stated that disaster relief should not be divided along party lines. Facing the intense challenges brought by extreme climate, Taiwan's overall flood control engineering indeed faces the predicament of lagging behind the pace of extreme climate change; however, the government's shared objective remains continuously reducing the frequency of flooding and minimizing property losses for the public.

Lin Pei-hsiung, secretary-general of the KMT caucus, pointed out during the press conference that whenever the wet season arrives or heavy rain causes disasters, residents in central and southern regions invariably have to endure the misery of flooding. This highlights potential gaps or areas requiring review between the flood control resources previously invested by the government and the actual outcomes. The KMT caucus specifically demanded that the administration of Lai Ching-te immediately devote full efforts to disaster relief and post-disaster reconstruction to assist affected residents in rebuilding their homes. More importantly, the Executive Yuan should submit a complete general inspection report on southern water management within one month for all southern counties and cities. This report should bring to light the central government's past funding allocations for flood control, the implementation progress of various projects, and the flood-resistance capacity of flood prevention facilities, subjecting them to public scrutiny and the inspection of elected representatives to ensure that every cent of taxpayers' money is truly spent where it is most needed.

Facing the questions and demands from the KMT caucus, Chuang Jui-hsiung, secretary-general of the DPP caucus, emphasized that in the face of natural disasters, flooding should not become a tool for political rhetoric or partisan division. Chuang pointed out that in recent years, Taiwan has been severely impacted by global climate change, with the frequency and intensity of extreme rainfall events far exceeding historical design standards. This has led to a severe test where current flood control engineering and flood prevention facilities frequently struggle against the reality that engineering construction cannot keep pace with extreme climate change. He called on both ruling and opposition parties to uphold empathy and a cooperative attitude at this critical juncture to jointly face the long-term challenges brought by climate change, urging central and local governments to transcend partisan barriers to jointly review and refine flood prevention strategies.

In fact, the water management issues Taiwan has faced for a long time involve complex structural factors such as national land planning, geographical environment, and budget allocation. In the past, the central government promoted several large-scale flood mitigation projects in flood-prone areas and forward-looking infrastructure development plans, allocating massive budgets toward river remediation, drainage ditch improvements, and the construction of pumping stations and detention basins. However, as the greenhouse effect intensifies, short-duration heavy rainfall has repeatedly broken historical records, and the design standards of many existing drainage systems can no longer handle the surges of rainwater. This has caused the phenomenon where "flooding occurs whenever rain falls swiftly and heavily" to repeatedly plague low-lying areas in central and southern regions, making the effectiveness of water management a core issue of political contention during every typhoon and rainstorm.

From the perspective of national security and people's livelihoods, how to respond to extreme climate has become an urgent priority for Taiwan's government, and simple political sparring cannot solve the fundamental problems. Although the ruling and opposition parties hold differing stances of supervision and accountability regarding the allocation, implementation efficiency, and review mechanisms of flood control budgets, they should share a high degree of consensus on the goals of reducing public disaster losses and safeguarding lives and property. Over the next month, whether the Executive Yuan will submit a concrete and comprehensive general inspection report on southern water management, and whether the ruling and opposition parties can engage in rational discussions in the Legislative Yuan regarding national land resilience and the allocation of flood prevention budgets, will be the focus of subsequent political attention, testing the governing and crisis-response capabilities of the administration in the era of climate change.

(Source: Central News Agency)