With Kaohsiung just battered by torrential rain, both candidates for mayor have simultaneously pushed flood control to the centre of the campaign — good news for residents of flooded areas, but pressure on the current city government.

• Kuomintang candidate Ko Chih-en brought in former Interior Minister Lee Hong-yuan to inspect the long-standing flooding problems around the Dianbao River in Tzukuan.
• Ko said Kaohsiung has spent a considerable flood-control budget and its detention ponds have been effective, but the Dianbao River still floods, which means the key bottleneck has not been identified.
• She argued that flood control requires cross-regional cooperation and collaboration between central and local government, using scientific methods to determine the siting of detention ponds and diversion channels, rather than letting it turn into political point-scoring.
• Democratic Progressive Party candidate Lai Jui-lung has proposed "Resilient Kaohsiung Engineering 2.0", integrating national land-use planning, parks and green space, and AI-based early warning into city governance — moving from managing water to managing the city.
• Lai also accompanied Lai Ching-te and Chen Chi-mai on this disaster inspection, seeking water-resource funding along with relief payments and low-interest loans for farmers and fishers.

Outlook: the battle over flood control will become the main front in the Kaohsiung mayoral race, and the next heavy rain will be the test of both sides' claims.