Mayor Chu declares to put into effect the concept of Flood Free City
New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu declared to thoroughly execute the concept of Flood Free City at the Municipal Conference on September 3rd. In addition to all the future public constructions instructed to have water-permeable facilities installed, for the constructions of private sectors, Chu directed that the New Taipei City Government quickly set up complete regulations to avoid the occurrences of flooding due to rainstorm in the New Taipei City in the future.
Chu represented that due to the global warming, flood prevention and flood management of the city are getting more important. He had asked all the related departments and district offices to achieve the goals of no depositing and no clogging, especially for the constructions of the side of the ditch, culvert and drainage facilities because there was a strict set-up standard for public constructions, but for private sector constructions, building water conservation system and lowering excavation rate were implemented via rewarding only instead of using the Government’s coercive power.
Chu said that to improve the occurrence of flooding when rainstorm comes, the Government will quickly design complete regulations for it. In addition to the public departments, private sector constructions should be included, so the concept of Flood Free City can be comprehensively achieved. Chu also emphasized that the Flood Free City idea is not only one of the basic requirements of modern metropolitan areas, but also an important government objective to protect its civilian’s lives and fortunes.
Chu indicated that a concrete plan will be strictly executed during city planning review or pre-construction permit review, and actual regulations will be clearly set up; for example, the past regulations did not enforce to build water-permeable facilities in legal open space, which caused some construction companies to use cement, asphalt or impervious material to build in legal open space, and those material did not have any water-permeable function, so those public open space could hardly assist in city flood prevention. Now it was specified to build permeable pavement in more than 80 percent of the public open space, and that is the way to accomplish the goal of Flood Free City.