The harm to the ecological and aesthetic environment will already be done once the walls are completed. Planting more greenery will do nothing to improve the situation. Ecological conservation and landscaping planning should have been done along with the planning for the embankment and river dredging projects.

Construction always comes first for the city government, however, and officials only shrug off such notions with vague answers. The bureaucrats didn't pay one bit of attention to the ecological or aesthetic environment during the planning pro-cess. Only after the walls were close to completion, did the government pretend to sympathize with the public's suggestions and emphasize landscaping and greenery.

`The Public Works Bureau leads Ma along by the nose, with construction projects that blight the landscape and destroy the environment.'

It even takes advantage of residents, saying they will have to take care of the area once construction is completed. Disregarding both ecology and public opinion with its "cement-friendly" construction methods, the city government first recklessly destroyed the environment and the landscape, and then tossed responsibility for handling the results to area residents.

Last year's flooding placed the city government in a difficult situation that led to a project to increase the height of the embankment walls. The Public Works Bureau did as it pleased and used cement, the simplest and quickest method, to raise the height of a few kilometers of embankments along the Sifen, Takeng and Kuang rivers.

There are reports that the original agreement was to use ecologically friendly construction methods to control the Kuang river, but in the end the Maintenance Engineering Office still used cement, turning the Kuang River into a big cement ditch. Peitou residents protested and Ma demanded that the authorities take public opinion into account. The chief of the Public Works Bureau responded by saying that he would lead the bureau's directors in negotiations with residents.

In fact, the city's method for dealing with this kind of embankment project is to first assure the public that "all problems will be eliminated" and that alternative construction methods will be considered. It then arranges public hearings in residential areas, saying it is communicating with the public and respecting public opinion, when it is actually only informing residents that a decision has been made to build embankment walls.

Any protests or suggestions for improvements are all but ignored. Even when promises are made, they are given on the spur of the moment. Later events prove that there was not the least bit of sincerity in such promises. The denial by the chief of the Maintenance Engineering Office -- who said that his office had not gone back on its word in the Kuang River project -- is clear proof.

Reading newspaper headlines, one can easily see the authoritarian ways of the director of the Public Works Bureau, supported by Ma. For example, "Trees `mistakenly' cut down on river banks, to be immediately replanted." Replanting cut-down trees is a typical bureaucratic stunt. It looks as if officials are being helpful, when in fact it is only part of the routine. Deep inside, local officials are just another authority treating the residents as children.

Cement-friendly construction methods turn rivers into ditches. The high cement walls on both sides of the river destroy the landscape. Even more seriously, this kind of construction method is certain to cover the river bed with cement. The possibility of the Kuang River being covered with cement all the way upstream has already caused unease among local residents.

The Takeng River has, in fact, already been covered with cement, and not just the river banks, but also the river bed. The river has lost all ability to replenish itself. It has been turned into a ditch for discharging water.

Not only is cement used for the construction of embankment walls, but sidewalks are usually made with cement. One of Taipei's deputy mayors said that less than 1 percent of sidewalks are covered with cement. But who knows what he meant by 1 percent? We all see many sidewalks completely covered in cement, and even if some of them don't seem to be all cement, cement is still the main material used.

Such cement sidewalks create serious problems, since they absorb heat, but do not allow water to seep through, creating what is known as an "urban heat island effect." This construction method is no longer used in other countries, but in Taipei it is the prevalent method.

It is impossible to understand why the city government is so enamored with cement and why it won't look at ecological considerations and landscaping plans. City officials persist in using cement as if they had had it poured into their ears, destroying their brains.

The Public Works Bureau leads Ma along by the nose, with construction projects that blight the landscape and destroy the environment. Ma was clueless before all this happened and he doesn't seem to care about demands by the public. Only when he saw the prison-like embankment walls rising high above the ground did he feel depressed, but then it was too late.

Political changes led to the Berlin Wall being torn down, but I'm afraid that it will be difficult to make the embankment walls and ditches left by Ma and his team disappear. Residents will simply have to get used to feeling depressed when they look at those high walls.

Chiu Hei-yuan is a research fellow at the Institute of Sociology of the Academia Sinica and a member of the Taipei Society.

Translated by Perry Svensson