Mayor Ma pledges more water to Taipei County

Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) promised yesterday that the city would give Taipei County more water when a new water purification unit at the Chihtan Purification Plant is completed at the end of 2003.

Taipei County Commissioner Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) responded by saying that Ma's promises would not end disputes over water unless a more stable supply of water to the county is secured.

In late August, Taipei County officials criticized Ma for his failure to offer more water to Taipei County.

At the time, the county requested an additional 120,000 tonnes a day from the city.

Taipei, however, was only willing to supply five tonnes, even though Taipei Water Department statistics show that the city is capable of dispatching as much as 300,000 tonnes of treated water per day to the county.

Provoked by the city's decision, Taipei County authorities abruptly cancelled a high profile "water supply ceremony" at the Feitsui Reservoir, scheduled for the end of August.

The ceremony was part of a new project planned by the county to share more of the reservoir's water with Taipei City.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had pledged to push for the right of Taipei County residents to have a more equitable share of water from the reservoir during last year's presidential election and was to be at the ceremony.

The cancellation was regarded by political commentators as an extension of the confrontation between President Chen and Mayor Ma, who beat Chen in 1998 Taipei mayoral election.

During the recent Taipei County Commissioner's race, Ma, a KMT member, discussed possible cooperation managing the water supply with the New Party's Wang Chien-shien (王建火宣) -- shunning the DPP candidate and incumbent commissioner, Su.

Su, a political comrade of President Chen, won re-election.

The Feitsui Reservoir has been providing 3.2 million tonnes of raw water per day to the city and part of the county since its inception in June 1987.

Although the city supplies more than a million tonnes of water to the county per day, some county residents are supplied by lower-grade water from other sources.

Yesterday, at a ground-breaking ceremony for the fifth water purification unit at the Chihtan Purification Plant, Mayor Ma promised to offer Taipei County more water in the future.

According to the Taipei Water Department, the new water purification unit is designed to treat 700,000 tonnes of raw water per day. The water purification plant will be the largest in Asia when the new unit, costing NT$1.24 billion, is completed at the end of 2003.

Ma, however, did not promise to offer a regular supply of water to the county. Taipei County officials said that the unstable water supply offered by the city had made water management problems more complicated.