No matter where one looks from the streets of Taipei, so long as buildings don't block the view, rows of blue-green hills appear on the horizon. Especially in the early morning, before its residents have awakened, the sight can be called one of the city's most beautiful.

The other side of the coin is this: Taipei is topographically a basin ringed by mountains. In fact, maps of Taipei from two hundred years ago show that most of the city was originally a lake, and even today many places are only slightly above sea level. Because of this, water conservancy experts have termed Taipei a "catch basin."

Unfortunately, this "catch basin" is located right in the typhoon belt. Flipping through the records of past flooding in the metropolitan Taipei region reveals that floods, like players in a game of round robin, have visited different areas of the city in turn. Nearly no place has been left out; the only difference is in the frequency of the visitations.

This October, Typhoon Lynn brought with it the kind of flooding that happens only once every 500 years, and the rainfall in some locations set a new record of 1500 mm. This time the areas "visited" were Hsichih, Wutu, Nankang, and Sung-shan--comparatively high areas that have been rarely flooded in the past. The flood waters at their highest reached seven meters, enough to drown two and a half stories. In the high-class residential districts of Chunghsiao East Road and the Minsheng community, the streets were lined with soaked cars.

After the flood, legislators and city councilmen quickly demanded that the responsible government agencies ascertain the causes of the disaster, and flood victims sought reparation.

The flooded areas were mainly along the middle and upper reaches of the Keelung River. One reason is that the rainfall in these areas was particularly heavy, and another is that this portion of the river is narrow and the rolling flood-waters found nowhere to go except over the bank.

Hardest hit were the part of Neihu where a levee has not been built; the Fuyuan St. and Minsheng areas, where a levee has been built but the sluice gate was not closed in time; and Sungshan and Nankang, where a gap in the existing levee led to serious levels of standing water.

After review, the city and provincial governments proposed steps for improvement.

Plugging the holes in the dyke--do our flood control measures lack overall planning?

"Actually, Taipei may be one of the cities with the greatest investment in flood control in the world," says Hsu Hung-hsi, chairman of the Water Resources Planning Commission in the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Flood control planning for the Tamsui River basin got started as early as 1960.

In 1969 the Ministry of Economic Affairs took over the responsibility for flood control planning for the greater Taipei area. After thorough evaluation by Chinese and foreign experts, a comprehensive plan was adopted for a Taipei Area Flood Control Project. Construction of levees and floodways was divided into three stages. The first and second stages will be completed next June, and the third stage is expected to be finished in 1994 (see map). The cost of the first and second stages will be NT$15 billion. (about US$500 million).

If so much money is being spent and so much time and effort were put into the plan, why is there still flooding? Does building levees work?

The levees in metropolitan Taipei are so-called 200-year levees. Dr. Yen Ch'ing-lien, a professor of civil engineering at National Taiwan University, explains that a 200-year levee is one estimated, based on records of past flooding, to be higher than all floods except those likely to occur just once every 200 years. Of course, no one knows when that kind of flood might occur next. That's why "building a 200-year "levee doesn't mean you can go home and sleep tight for the next 200 years. It just means that the chances of flooding are greatly reduced," he says.

Perhaps someone will ask, why not build a 500-year or 1000-year levee and reduce the chances even further?

"As living standards improve, the property damage caused by a flood becomes greater and greater," Dr. Yen explains, "and the public may wish to allocate more of its tax money to raising levees. The question becomes whether it is worth spending so much money to protect against a flood that will happen only once every 200 or 500 years, or whether some inevitable property damage should be accepted instead. This is a question to be evaluated by the government."

Flood control involves other economic trade-offs as well. In the plan for the Taipei Area Flood Control Project, construction was to be restricted or prohibited in certain areas set aside as floodways and flowage areas. But the rapid growth of metropolitan Taipei over the past twenty years has far exceeded the estimates made at the time when the plan was being drawn up. Because of the large influx of population, the floodways and flowage areas have gradually become occupied with both legal and illegal construction. Urban growth has taken precedence over flood control.

Hsu Hung-hsi, chairman of the Water Resources Planning Commission, says that people would rather spend more money on roads and put flood control construction on the back burner.

The district around Fuyuan St., Sungshan, and Nanking East Rd., for instance, was originally a spill-off and flowage area for the Keelung River and deemed unsuitable for a high level of development, but it has now become a crowded residential area.

"We occupied too much of the river basin in the past, and now the river is trying to take it back," an engineer at the Water Resources Planning Commission avers.

This struggle for lebensraum between man and river naturally presents problems for flood control. The chief sticking point that has held up the third stage of the flood control plan before the Council for Economic Planning and Development is that the plan would require the demolition of 20,000 illegal buildings along the Tahan Creek.

Flooding is everyone's problem, and everyone must work together to be effective in preventing it. For example, most people attribute the recent flooding in the Minsheng district to the inadequacy of the rain sewer system there and demand that it be enlarged. In addition to adequate investment, engineering, and maintenance, however, the entire citizenry must be public spirited enough to keep the system clean and unobstructed. Dr. Yen recalls a research visit he paid to Taipei's underground drainage system: "From filth, plastic bags, and polyfoam to bicycles and broken beds--it had it all."

Dr. Yen concludes, "If people still have the same old idea of thirty years that the sewer is a place to dump anything and everything, then you can hire as many top-notch engineers and spend as much money as you like and the system will still be a mess."

Floods are not a day-to-day threat, and people are apt to forget. Awareness reaches a peak during the several days after a flood. Typhoon Lynn placed third in the newspapers' list of the ten hottest topics in the news, and a few days later dropped to number eight.

Is our awareness fading?

[Picture Caption]

The floodwaters rose up to a person's waist and covered the hoods of car s in the Minsheng district when Typhoon Lynn paid a visit to Taipei in late October.

Because traffic in the Fuyuan St. area was paralyzed, rescue workers used rubber rafts to carry victims to safety. (photo by Jack Chang)

The heavy rains from Typhoon Lynn caused landslides in the hills around Taipei. (photo by Vincent Chang)

The Engineering Map of Flood Prevention for Taipei(picture)

Illegal buildings and gravel quarries around the levees in the Shetzu district reduce the effectiveness of flood control.

Flowage areas provide drainage channels for floodwater. At other times they can be used as parks or recreation areas.

Does building levees prevent floods?

Because traffic in the Fuyuan St. area was paralyzed, rescue workers used rubber rafts to carry victims to safety. （photo by Jack Chang）

The Engineering Map of Flood Prevention for Taipei（picture）

The heavy rains from Typhoon Lynn caused landslides in the hills around Taipei. （photo by Vincent Chang）