One of the Ministry of Economic Affairs' (MOEA) alternatives to the suspended Meinung Dam in Kaohisung County provoked strong opposition yesterday in Tainan County, where the ministry intended to channel water from local reservoirs to supply Kaohsiung County.
According to the MOEA, using water from the Nanhua Reservoir (
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.
Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Hsin-yi (
The Kaoping River could supply both the Kaohsiung metropolitan area and Tainan County in the rainier seasons, while in the drier seasons, water stored at Nanhua Reservoir could be released to supply both areas, according to water resource officials.
Local residents in Tainan County, however, oppose the MOEA's idea. They have said that exchanging clean water in Nanhua Reservoir for polluted water in the Kaoping River is unfair.
"Everybody knows that the Kaoping River is heavily polluted. In addition, we don't have surplus water to support residents in other counties," Tainan Mayor Chang Tsan-hung (
The Kaoping River has been notorious for decades for pollution due to excrement from upstream pig and duck farms. In addition, chemical discharges into the river have also terrified the public. In July a secret discharge of toxic chemical solvents forced authorities to halt water supplies to 3 million residents for five days. The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has since July listed the river as in need of urgent clean-up action.
DPP legislator Wang Sing-nan (
The Meinung Dam project was halted following President Chen Shui-Bian's (
The MOEA, however, continues a series of geological surveys at the proposed site for the dam. Last Wednesday, Lloyd Cluff, a US consultant to the Water Resources Department (WRD,
WRD officials told the Taipei Times yesterday that the continuing geological survey was to collect scientific evidence to assuage Meinung residents, who have presented doubts about the geological situation of the proposed site for the dam in the past.
Tainan County itself currently faces water-related problems. At a council session yesterday, local councilors yesterday told Tainan County Commissioner Mark Chen (陳唐山) that infrastructure in mountainous areas was insufficient.
"People living beside reservoirs have no tap water to drink," Tainan Councilor Wang Chun-tan (
Wang knelt down to beg Commissioner Chen to take the issue into account, presenting a list of names of people without tap water. Commissioner Chen told Wang that he would solve the water problems.
Commissioner Chen said in August that he opposed channeling water from the Nanhua Reservoir to the Kaohsiung metropolitan area, adding that he could not accept what he called the vague water management policies proposed by the MOEA.
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