Taitung Beinan Creek water coverage restoration progress is over 70%, construction has been accelerated to prevent dust in autumn and winter

Taitung's Beinan Creek water coverage has restored more than 70% of the water area. (Photo by reporter Huang Mingtang)

Affected by the continuous heavy rainfall in August, the water in Beinan River surged. The existing water coverage and water-conducting earth embankments in some river sections were damaged by floods, and the exposed area of ​​the river bed increased. In order to combat the river dust that may be brought by the northeast monsoon in autumn and winter, the Taitung County Government immediately invested manpower and heavy machinery to repair the area after the rainfall slowed down and the on-site operations were confirmed to be safe. At present, the area covered by water for maintenance by the Environmental Protection Bureau has reached more than 70% of the repair progress.

The county government stated that heavy rains in August caused significant damage to the water coverage of the river section from the Taitung Bridge to the sea outlet. The Environmental Protection Bureau immediately conducted on-site surveys and dispatched machinery and equipment. Based on the exposure of the river bed and the risk of dust, it prioritized water diversion, embankment and water coverage repairs in high-risk areas, and continued to expand the scope of improvements based on the hydrological and weather conditions of the river bed.

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The county government pointed out that the river bed of Beinan Creek changes rapidly, and water coverage facilities are easily affected by typhoons, heavy rains and surges in stream water. Therefore, dust control is not a one-time task, but must be continuously adjusted according to the river bed and hydrological conditions. Now that the northeast monsoon is gradually entering the period, the county government will continue to monitor the weather, wind speed and direction, river bed exposure and water coverage conditions, and adjust the restoration location and construction capacity on a rolling basis.

The Taitung County Environmental Protection Bureau pointed out that based on the analysis of monitoring and prevention experience over the years, when the water coverage and repair degree reaches 70% and the wind speed reaches more than 4.6 meters/second, the probability of river dust occurrence can be reduced from about 50% to about 20%. Therefore, this time to speed up the restoration of water coverage before the impact of the northeast monsoon intensifies is not only to repair damaged facilities, but more importantly, to reduce the risk of dust caused by strong winds on the exposed riverbed in advance.