In order to strengthen the emergency response capability in the face of different disaster conditions during the flood season, the 9th River Management Office of the Water Resources Agency held this year's joint flood control exercise for water gates, large mobile pumps and movable water baffle assembly at the water gate of Xikou embankment in Shoufeng Township on the 19th. Hualien Management Office of the Irrigation Agency, the Hualien County Government, and the township and municipal offices were invited to observe and discuss in order to strengthen the ability of the central and local governments to coordinate flood control and response.
This exercise is about the response process during typhoons and heavy rains, including the setting up of a disaster emergency response team, the opening and closing of water gates, the elimination of abnormal power supply, the elimination of foreign objects affecting the opening and closing of water gates, and the use of large mobile pumping units and movable water baffles during flooding in embankments. People who are familiar with the operations will be able to prevent and rescue in response to disasters quickly, correctly and effectively, helping to prevent disasters from occurring or from worsening.
9th River Management Office's commissioner, Ming-Chang Hsieh, points out that the exercises will allow flood control personnel to become more familiar with response procedures and will also allow them to find out if there are areas that have not been considered or need to be improved through the exercise process. Commissioner Hsieh further said that the flood control preparations work must be confirmed again and again. At the 9th River Management Office, various activation mechanisms have been prepared in advance. To ensure the regular execution of flood control work, the manpower arrangements in response to the epidemic are also finished with the division of labor.
The epidemic is becoming more serious recently, so epidemic prevention measures have been strengthened for this exercise. All participants took body temperature, implemented real-name registration, wore masks and disinfected with alcohol. The seating arrangements also maintained a social distancing of more than 1 meter, so that both flood control and epidemic prevention are taken into account.
There are 31 water gates and 3 large 12-inch mobile pumping units under the jurisdiction of the 9th River Management Office, which are regularly maintained and test-run to prepare for emergencies. In addition, the Hualien County Government and the township and municipal offices have been subsidized to purchase 9 large 12-inch, 21 medium 6-inch and 15 small 3-inch mobile pumping units and 3,617 temporary flood control baffles. They are deployed and pre-distributed in each township and municipal office by the county government so that, when necessary, the setup can be completed in the shortest possible time to improve disaster prevention and relief maneuverability and efficiency.