Hsinchu may soon face water shortage

Concerns over a potential water shortage in the economically important Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (新竹科學園區) may diminish willingness by the park's high-tech firms to invest in the area, an analyst said yesterday.

"It's the government's job to ensure a sufficient water supply as part of the park's infrastructure facilities," said George Wu (吳裕良), an analyst who follows the industry for Primasia Securities Co. "The headache shouldn't be left for companies to worry about."

During the drought last year, several high-tech companies, frustrated with lax government assistance, shipped in water by the truckload. With the government starting new water rationing measures yesterday, most are adopting a wait-and-see approach, he said.

"Not a single company can afford to build up a back-up reservoir to store enough water for long-term use," he said. Some companies are planning to move to China and, therefore, unlikely to spend money to address the issue.

Scarce rainfall this year may force officials to cut the park's daily water supply by 50,000 tonnes, down from the current daily supply of 110,000 tonnes, in mid March according to the Taiwan Water Supply Corp (自來水公司).

But the government's Water Resources Agency spokesman Chen Shen-hsien (陳伸賢) yesterday vowed to keep the park's water supply sufficient.

Three high-tech companies contacted by the Taipei Times yesterday appeared to have no worst-case-scenario plan in place.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) -- the world's biggest made-to-order chipmaker -- said it acknowledges the importance of water in its production lines and will therefore remain aware of the situation.

"We'll make sure our production lines remain stable despite any possible water shortage," the company's spokesman Tzeng Jinnhaw (曾晉皓) said.

TSMC's water storage facilities can act as a reserve supply for "a few days' use" and, if the drought gets worse, the company will truck water in from neighboring counties, Tzeng said.

United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world's second-largest made-to-order chipmaker, and Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), Taiwan's fifth-largest makers of computer memory chips, were both optimistic that the government would be able to resolve any water shortage problem.

"The water supply is normal now and no alert has been announced yet," Winbond's public relations manager Mike Liu (劉重光) said yesterday.

The company may also resort to trucking in water if the drought persist, he said.

Meanwhile, the science park's deputy director general Randy Yen (顏宗明) yesterday said that the government is under great pressure since a drought would negatively impact the nation's economy.

Work on five new wells in the vicinity of the park are expected to supply up to 80,000 tonnes of water per day by late April.

Some 3,000 hectares of agricultural land have been left fallow to conserve water, he said.

An additional 1,500 hectare will be left fallow next week.

Work on Hsinchu County's third dam is expected to be completed next year to relieve the area's water shortage problem, Yen said.