Details on the disaster relief and recovery process of the Guangfu area were shared with the public at a press conference on Sunday morning. Chief coordinator of the Central Emergency Operation Center (CEOC) disaster relief effort Chi Lien-cheng (季連成) said that the red alert for the Fata'an River landside lake has been lifted, leaving only one requirement remaining to potentially lower the alert level below yellow.

Chi shared that, after comprehensive monitoring began on Friday, the lake's current storage capacity is only 1.7% of the original capacity– or about 1.55 million tons. He assured that even if all the remaining water were to flow out, it wouldn't be enough to affect towns and infrastructure downstream, including Guangfu Township.

Chi reported that the dredging of the lake is also proceeding ahead of schedule, at 90,000 cubic tons of material per day, and the levee reinforcement work has also been completed. Thanks to all these efforts, the red alert for the Fata'an landslide dam has been lifted, with only the evacuation plan currently being finalized. After the plan is approved by local and central governments and carried out, Chi said, the alert for the area may even be lowered to yellow or below.

Still, operations are not yet finished. Five people remain missing, and the landslide buried approximately 800 hectares of farmland in Guangfu and Fenglin. 

Special teams from cities and counties around Taiwan, as well as military forces, have been called in to intensify the search for the remaining missing. Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) shared Sunday that the farmland restoration is currently under evaluation. With mud and sand ranging from centimeters to potentially 6 meters thick, removal of the nearly 6 tons of mud sediment would take at least three years. Rezoning farmland seems like the most practical long-term solution currently.

Addressing the public's concern about heavy metal content in the soil, Chen says on-site surveys by experts found only the top three to five centimeters of soil were impacted. The underlying soil is sand similar to existing farming properties, and meets the standards for crop growth, subsequent planting, and consumption.