Fri, Aug 12, 2005 page8

• The price of water is just too low

  • By Lee Hong-yuan 李鴻源
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  Typhoon Matsa muddied the water in Shihmen Reservoir, and because water facilities cannot handle muddy water, it became necessary to ration the water supply, leading to protests by the public.

  The fact is that Taoyuan and Taipei counties have suffered water supply problems after almost every typhoon over the past few years. Over the same period, I have constantly claimed that the Shihmen Reservoir is old and that silt accumulation leads to a shortage of 400 million tonnes every year.

  Meanwhile, the science park in Taoyuan is actively working to attract businesses and new residential areas are constantly being developed. Without appropriate legal controls, the nightmarish water supply problems in the Greater Taipei area will move from being occasional, to becoming permanent. And since there is no space to build another big reservoir in northern Taiwan, other measures will be required.

  The government should make appropriate adjustments to the price of water so that conserving the resource doesn't remain merely a slogan and a political problem. That is the best way to promote sustainable national development. The problem currently facing us is that the Greater Taipei area has a shortage of 400 million tonnes of water. Last year, the Shihmen Reservoir accumulated more than 87 million tonnes of silt. This figure is increasing by the year, causing the reservoir to continue to shrink.

  The cost of removing one tonne of silt is between NT$300 and NT$400, which means that cleaning the whole reservoir would be outrageously expensive. Another big problem would be where to dump all that silt. The Water Resources Agency (水利署) is now trying to work around the muddiness by taking water from different levels, but such methods do not address the fundamental problem.

  So is there a water shortage in Taiwan? The fact is, there is a lot of room to cut down on water usage. The problem is that our policies fail to use water resources comprehensively and effectively.

  The average Taiwanese person uses 350 liters of water per day, while the average person in the US or Europe uses 150 liters per day. The price of one unit of water in the US and Europe is NT$40, while in Taipei City it is NT$7, and for Taiwan overall, NT$9.

  Taiwan prides itself on being a developed country with a GDP of more than US$14,000. Water usage, however, stands at twice that of the US and Europe, and the price of water is equal to that of third-world developing countries. Even prices in China are twice as high as in Taiwan. Not everyone may know that the development cost for a new water reservoir currently stands at NT$22 for one unit of water, while the cost for sea water desalinization is NT$40. This comparison makes it even more obvious that Taiwan's water prices are unreasonable. The Water Resources Agency has on several occasions suggested to the Cabinet that water prices should be adjusted upwards, but all such suggestions have been waved off. The fact is that a reasonable rise in the cost of water would not be much of a burden for the general public.

  It is industry that would feel the effects and some pressure. Is the government keeping prices low for the public or for industry? The US and Europe have set a reasonable price for water to make the public understand the value of water resources, while at the same time forcing industry to recycle more than 90 percent of the water used. This has made the economical use of water part of day-to-day life.

  Here in Taiwan, the government has advocated water conservation for the past 20 or 30 years, but has restricted its actions to moral exhortations. Neither the public, industry, nor even government organizations themselves want to cut down on water use. At the same time, overly low prices mean that the Taiwan Water Corp lacks funds to renew infrastructure. Leakage rates in Taiwan's water pipelines exceed 30 percent.

  The low cost of water has caused the public to become accustomed to wasting it. Yet when a typhoon strikes, they are faced with a shortage.

  Complaints about water shortages in the Greater Taipei area abound. The government normally deals with these by letting some official shoulder responsibility by stepping down. This time, Taiwan Water Corp chairman Lee Wen-liang (李文良) has requested that Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) dismiss him from his post.

  The water supply problem will not, however, be solved by having someone step down. The government should change its decision-making logic and, through policy, should make both the general public and industry implement fundamental water savings.

  Based on urban development and land-use considerations, it should then implement the effective distribution and use of water resources across Taiwan.

  The current global climatic changes in particular mean that water resource management is becoming more important.

  Taiwan, however, still does not have a full set of detailed hydrological data because, while collecting such data is difficult, it is not rewarded and has therefore been sacrificed for the sake of other expenditures and votes. As such, at times such as now when we are faced with water supply problems, there are no accurate hydrological data on which to plan and implement policy.

  Seventy percent of the human body consists of water. Water is life and without water we are nothing. Currently, 1.2 billion people around the world lack clean drinking water. In developing countries, 60 percent of the population gets sick as a result of unclean water and 2 billion people around the world do not have access to water purification systems. These are very serious issues. In the face of the water supply problems here, we should maybe consider anew the importance of water resources.

  Beginning by adjusting the price of water, we can set up reasonable policies for the use of water resources and make a contribution to the sustainable development of global water resources.

  Lee Hong-yuan is a professor on the faculty of hydraulic engineering in the department of civil engineering at National Taiwan University.

  Translated by Perry Svensson
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