Chiayi Family Suffers Decade of Electricity Leakage|嘉義民宅漏電10年 揪出台電線路害的!

The owner of a house in Chiayi County's Minxiong Township recently sought the services of an electrician to discover why his appliances were breaking so often. The electrician discovered the reason was electricity leakage from Taiwan Power Company and Chunghwa Telecom cables located 500 meters away. The homeowner says he will seek national compensation.


Every single cable must be torn down, and all the decorations have also been torn down.

The interior of this home in Chiayi County's Minxiong Township is almost bare, because decorations have been torn down to discover where electricity leakage is occurring. During the past 10 years, Mr. He and his family had to wear rubber boots while cooking and washing dishes to insulate themselves from the electricity. If they touched something metal in their house, they would get an electric shock. For many years, they couldn't figure out why this was happening. They sought the services of an electrician, who cut power to the entire house. At first, the electrician suspected the source of the leakage to be telecom cables on the roof. Then the source was pinpointed as a Taiwan Power Company electricity pole located 500 meters from the house. Next to the pole was a mango tree, which had pressed down on cables, damaging them. These cables then pressed down on telecom cables, and the electricity leakage continued all the way to the house. Several electric rice cookers and television sets have broken as a result of the electricity leakage, and the homeowner suspects his family's health may have been affected as well. He is demanding national compensation.

The electricity leakage affected the residence of the homeowner. We will provide compensation if the homeowner presents exact evidence on any resulting damage.

Taipower says it is a state-run company, and as such national compensation is not applicable. It adds the homeowner only has to produce clear evidence on the damage caused by the electricity leakage in order to receive compensation. However, for the He family, it may be hard to make up for all the living and psychological difficulties they suffered in the past decade.