Indigenous residents along Hualien's Mataian Creek protested outside the Executive Yuan on September 21, saying reconstruction and land expropriation had proceeded without consultation, two days before the barrier lake flood's first anniversary. The breach on September 23, 2025, driven by rain from the outer circulation of Typhoon Ragasa, sent floodwater into Guangfu, killing 19 people, leaving five missing and burying more than 700 hectares of farmland in silt, PTS reported.
What are the communities demanding? Residents of Fata'an, Tafalong, Atomo, Kalotongan, Cirakayan and Cihafayan, many of whom, PTS reported, had set off from Hualien after 3 a.m., brought five demands. They want tribes to decide reconstruction plans jointly under the informed-consent rights of the Indigenous Peoples Basic Law, planning for the whole basin rather than piecemeal river works, and no forced expropriation or relocation until the risks and the need for the works are clarified. They also asked for water, soil-conservation, Indigenous-affairs and local agencies to act in step, and for interim housing and livelihoods to be secured first. Residents said some flood-control works began before landowners had agreed.
How did officials respond? The head of the Water Resources Agency's Ninth River Management Branch, which runs the Mataian works, said staff had met residents face to face on weekends, in the evenings and in living-room meetings, with dozens of sessions on record. After the rally, the Executive Yuan invited tribal, academic and civic representatives inside for talks. Protesters shouted that they were dissatisfied: the only answers, a youth alliance convener said, were that public works would first go to the Council of Indigenous Peoples to judge whether consent is required and that north-bank expropriation would be paused, with other demands taken back for study.
What threat remains upstream? By late August the lake held no water and the dam had fallen from about 200 metres to 100-odd metres, yet more than 200 million cubic metres of debris still sit upstream, PTS reported. The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency's Hualien branch chief said he could not say whether it would all come down at once, citing the chance of a major earthquake or extreme rainfall. Crews will return after the flood season to regrade slopes. Downstream, more than 25 million cubic metres have been dredged, and the first line of a two-line levee, 5 kilometres long and up to 12 metres high, is under construction, though the land it requires has met resistance.
