The heartland of Taiwan's high-technology sector, the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (
Global technology companies in the park responded to the news by saying that an inadequate supply may force them to halt production lines as early as next week if a solution cannot be found. As of press time, government negotiators were still working to find a solution before the taps run dry.
"My guess is that within a week ... we may not be able to have water trucked in. There aren't enough trucks to bring in all the water that companies in Hsinchu need and it's very expensive," said an executive at AU Optronics Corp (
Taiwan's worst drought in 20 years has led to a water shortage so severe that Hsinchu science park officials had to cut the water supply by up to 10 percent per day.
Under normal operations, firms in the park require 95,000 tonnes of water per day, according to the park administration's director-general James Lee (李界木).
AU Optronics operates four production facilities inside the Hsinchu science park, where the shortage is impacting over 300 companies, including chipmakers, optoelectronics firms and LCD panel makers.
The AU executive said his company needs 16,000 tonnes of water per day to keep production equipment from overheating and to clean chemicals off finished LCD panels. It has been trucking in 4,000 tonnes per day for the past few weeks and says the worsening shortage is too much for truckers to keep up with.
"Demand [for LCD panels] is very high right now, and if we had to cut production, it would have a big impact on us," the executive said. He would not elaborate on the potential monetary losses involved in a work stoppage.
When Taiwan's worst earthquake in recent years struck on Sept. 21, 1999 and cut power to the Hsinchu park for six days companies in the park lost about US$1 billion in production.
Companies within the Hsinchu science park sold NT$662.5 billion (US$18.92 billion) worth of goods last year. Park officials expect production to rise to NT$800 billion this year.
Vice Premier Lin Hsin-yi (林信義) said yesterday the government would come up with a plan to put rice fields out of commission in favor of keeping computer chips and other products rolling off production lines at the science park.
He said a government task force charged with solving the water shortage problem was still seeking a compromise with local farmers.
Looking to the future, Lin said a new reservoir to be completed by 2004 in the area would ensure a total water supply of 590,000 tonnes per day to the greater Hsinchu area.
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