Explosions and Floods: A Kaohsiung Tale

Photo provided by appledaily

In the last month, Kaohsiung has suffered more disaster than most other places do in a lifetime.  Before we officially move out of August, I felt I should mention the two disasters and outline their importance so that hopefully, by calling attention to them and demanding accountability (in just one more way), these types of events will be less likely to reoccur.  However, it should be noted that this explosion is the second such event, the first in 1997, so perhaps Kaohsiung residents are right to be wary of politicians declaring incoming change, at least as long as shifting responsibility remains the name of the game here (shift the blame is the unofficial past-time here, more on that in a later entry).

Brief history of Kaohsiung:
Kaohsiung's roots officially date back over 7000 years to when the first aboriginal people inhabited the area, but its written history begins in the 1600s when the Chinese brought writing and bureaucracy to the region.  After this, several Western Powers visited and colonized Taiwan, including the Dutch and the Portuguese, for which Isla de Formosa was named.  The late 1800s to 1945 saw Japanese occupation, and when Taiwan was again ruled by the Chinese in 1945, Kaohsiung was given its current name, and began modern industrial development.  Today, the main residential city is sandwiched between two manufacturing zones in the north and south (Xiaogang and Nanzi), where factories and major companies produce countless goods for Taiwan and overseas.  These areas are rather notorious for pumping out some pretty unseemly stuff into both air and water, and although Taiwan does have an EPA to manage these kinds of issues, they are rather impotent in preventing said pollution.

On July 31st, what we now believe to be one of Kaohsiung's major petrochemical companies was leaking gas via its pipes that run alongside the sewage lines under downtown's major roads.  As is common in Taiwan and elsewhere, several companies played the 'not my problem' game with the gas leak, passing the blame off whenever possible.  According to the government, safety checks are run regularly (this is currently being disputed by those on the inside who suspect the government rubber stamps the checks without running proper evaluations), but several companies share usage of the pipes and it was the individual company's responsibility to check the pipes.

Regardless, the facts are as such:
Around 8pm on July 31st, residents in the Kaixuan (downtown) area began calling the government complaining of gas leak smells.  Fire departments responded and were on scene around midnight when the gas began exploding out of manholes.  Responders account for the majority of the casualties associated with the explosions because they were out in the streets trying to resolve the problem as the length of the streets exploded; people who remained in their homes did not suffer serious injury (more details can be seen here and here).

In the aftermath of the explosions, reports emerged that there were nearly 300 wounded and 25 dead.  The media and government are still investigating the responsible parties, although to date one petrochemical company has been named publicly, though they currently deny any responsibility.


The week after on August 9th, Kaohsiung was hit by a really large storm (not a typhoon) that dumped over 200mm of rain on us in under 12 hours.  Over the course of several days, much of Kaohsiung was left flooded, especially in the areas where the streets had been totally torn up- the explosion site that covered about a third of the city taking the worst of it as the troughs created by the explosions filled up with water and prevented it from draining.  For the first time since I've been here (7 years) the government had no choice but to declare a flood day.  For more information, see articles here or here.


As August draws to a close, the flood waters have receded, but the physical scars created by the explosions remain as do questions regarding the liable parties and who and how they will be held accountable.

As someone that has personally called the EPA numerous (minimum biweekly) times to complain about the smell of toxic gas smells, I sincerely hope that the government decides to make leaks a priority and cleans up Kaohsiung, but I'm not going to hold my breath.  This is a city that runs off of a platform of many facades to please as many people as possible, but ultimately only the least controversial of them, even when lives are at stake.