President 
Lai Ching-te inspected flood-control works in Kaohsiung and flooded roads in Tainan on August 25, and pushed back against criticism of flood-control spending in southern Taiwan. Continuous heavy rain brought by a low-pressure system and southwesterly winds had caused damage in Kaohsiung, Pingtung, Tainan and Chiayi, CNA reported.
Where did the president go? Lai visited the Wujiawei detention pond in Gangshan in the morning. He also viewed the Tuku drainage there and the Beigou drainage in Yong'an with Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai, CNA reported. He said rainfall in northern Kaohsiung had topped 500 millimetres in 24 hours, far above the protection standard and worse than during Typhoon Morakot. In the afternoon he viewed flooded roads outside Kun Shan University in Tainan after a briefing from the city's water resources bureau and remarks from Mayor Huang Wei-che.
What did he say about the criticism? Greater Taipei's flood works began before the rest of Taiwan's and have absorbed several hundred billion New Taiwan dollars, Lai said, while those in the centre and south still need strengthening. "Don't criticise the flood-control plans the moment a typhoon hits and central and southern Taiwan flood. How is anyone supposed to bear that?" he said. In Tainan, he said the flooded area had shrunk to some 400-plus hectares from more than 50,000 during Morakot despite no less rainfall, and asked for more support and less criticism, particularly from people who do not know the facts.
What happens next? The Wujiawei pond had worked, Lai said, but plans for a Tuku detention pond, pumping stations and waterway improvements have gone to the central government, and he asked the Water Resources Agency to approve them quickly. In Tainan he endorsed a city plan, which Huang said would add box culverts along Kunda Road to carry runoff to a pumping station and build an underground detention pond on university parking land, and said the interior ministry and the agency would back it financially.
What else happened? Premier Cho Jung-tai, who viewed farm damage in Pingtung, had drawn opposition anger with a remark a day earlier that there was no money for disaster inspections, PTS reported. Cho said his trip and the president's had been planned in advance, but operating budgets had to be adjusted first, as the legislature's budget review required.
Figures referenced: Lai Ching-te. — JudgeMarket.
