Water issues in south discussed

Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) said yesterday that the local government would do its best to cooperate with the central government to promote alternatives to the Meinung Dam (美濃水庫) project.

On Aug. 5, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said that the Meinung Dam would not be built during his presidency.

"Because the water resources policy has been clarified, the local government will make an effort to promote alternatives in order to meet the demand for water at the Kangshen Industrial Complex (岡山工業區) and at the Luchu Science-based Industrial Park (路竹科學 園區)," Yu said.

Yu said that the local government would support water conservancy construction projects currently being undertaken by the Water Resources Department (WRD, 水利處) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

The WRD, Yu said, is building joint pipes for both the Nanhua Reservoir (南化水庫) in Tainan County, and the Kaoping River Tashu dam (高屏溪大樹攔河堰) in Kaohsiung County. But the project has encountered local opposition, Yu added.

"If necessary, the local government will use its fullest powers to eliminate the opposition of land owners," Yu said, adding that the local government would set a date to solve such problems with the WRD.

Yu's emphasis on support for alternatives yesterday comes in the wake of remarks by Lin Hsin-yi (林信義), Minister of Economic Affairs, on Aug. 7.

Lin, inspecting industrial complexes in Kaohsiung, had said that the project for the Meinung Dam had been postponed rather than cancelled.

Lin said that a final decision on whether to build the Meinung Dam would not be made until 2009, and that it would be a solution to possible water scarcity in southern Taiwan.

The MOEA predicts that southern Taiwan will suffer from a shortfall of 530,000 tonnes of water in 2011, rising to 990,000 tonnes in 2016.

Lin said, however, that the water shortage might be deferred to the year 2021 if the Tsengwen River Cross-Border Channeling project (曾文溪越域引水) was completed on schedule.

Lin's stress on the deferment of the Meinung Dam project clarified President Chen's promise of Aug. 5 that the dam would not be built during his presidency. Chen's declaration had been widely interpreted by the public to mean that the Meinung Dam project had been cancelled forever.

In addition, experts in water conservancy circles pointed out that alternatives presented by President Chen -- such as reinforcing the banks of the Nanhua Reservoir (南化水庫加高) in Tainan County, and the Chiyang Artificial Reservoir (吉洋人工湖) in Meinung township -- had actually not passed feasibility studies.

Although Lin promised that reinforcement of the banks of the Nanhua Reservoir would not be carried out until 2021, Tainan County Commissioner Mark Chen (陳唐山) said that he could not accept such "vague" water management polices.

Environmentalists said that the Meinung Dam, designed to supply 1.11 million tonnes of water daily, was supposed to supply water needed for a proposed industrial complex, the Pinnan Industrial Complex (濱南工業區) in Tainan County.

They have long urged the central government to formulate industrial development policy in tandem with water management policy.

Due to opposition from environmentalists, the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for the Pinnan Industrial Complex Project has been on hold since last December, when the EPA passed the first stage of the EIA.