"The more we are prepared, the less disaster we will encounter," emphasized Mayor Lin Chia-lung when he inspected the Wurih Shuwangpi Pumping Station on March 18. “Although there is no flood problem or any disaster at this moment, we must still get prepared. Upholding this kind of mentality, we are inspecting the management and maintenance of all the appliances related to disaster prevention. To enhance personnel safety and immediacy, we are also considering the use of unmanned air vehicles (UAV) to take pictures from the air so as to quickly grasp the on-site situations,” said Mayor Lin.

As theflood season is approaching, Mayor Lin inspected the Shuwangpi Pumping Station on March 18. Director-general Chou Ting-chang (周廷彰) of Water Resources Bureau made the briefing to Mayor Lin and other inspectors, including City Councilor Lee Tian-sheng (李天生), Wurih District chief Chen Yun-liang (陳雲亮), chief Laixin Zhong (賴信忠) of Guongming Village, and chief Lin Rong-yuan (林榮源) of Wuguong Village. Attending in the briefing were also representatives from the Construction and Disaster Prevention Research Center of Feng Chia University.

Director-general Chou explained that the Shuwangpi Pumping Station is equipped with 5 large water pumps, which can suck 10 cubic meters of water per second or drain one international standard swimming pool in 3 minutes. “These 5 large pumps can improve the flooding situation for an area of about 80 hectares or effectively rectify the flooding within the dikes of Tali Stream(大里溪) under the typhoon’s torrential rain and improve the flooding in Wuguong Village of Wurih District and the upstream areas over there,” added Chou.

On the scene were also showcased 22 large and 19 small water pumps, which are available for use when necessary. Meanwhile, the large water pumps were tested on-site, and a UAV camera was used to record and send back the images of Shuwangpi Pumping Station, the large water pumps, and their operations in sucking and discharging water.

Mayor Lin said, “The use of unmanned air vehicles (UAV) is good for reducing danger for our staff on duty, because the device can timely send back the on-site images, allowing us to master the whole situation. I hope high-tech equipment can be used in any anti-disaster maneuver in the future.”

With regard to the BRT bus-related issues raised by the media, Mayor Lin explained, “The BRT examination team will make an overall report at the municipal meeting next Monday. They will propose four improvement options based on their examinations on the civil engineering, electronics, vehicles, central control systems and so on and so forth. The four options include: transforming the BRT routes to bus lanes, upgrading the BRT system to meet the international standards, and mixing the BRT routes with bus lanes. The third option can be further divided into two sub-options: namely right of way with semaphore or right of way without semaphore. Here, I should emphasize that any improvement program should go with a package of measures. We will make a final decision to choose one option from the four based on the difficulty to execute, budget, time and other factors.”

Contact Person: Mr. Ho
Tel: 04-22289111 ext.53701