Books seek to explain water woes to public

Those suffering as a result of the country's seemingly interminable floods and droughts now have their woes at least partly explained in two books released yesterday.

Using hundreds of photos, Rivers of Taiwan and Waterfalls of Taiwan, published by Walkers Cultural Publisher (遠足文化), introduce the country's main waterways by describing geological conditions, the characteristics of water resources in Taiwan, ecological systems created by rivers, interaction between humans and rivers, water pollution and problems of water-resource management.

"These books are different in that they use lots of maps and photos to vividly present rivers' current faces," said Wang Shin (王鑫), a geography professor at National Taiwan University (NTU) an co-author of the books.

Rivers of Taiwan has more than 300 photos and folded maps of 20 main rivers to help readers get a bigger picture of the country's river systems.

Wang said the books were not just a reserve of information but also an attempt to persuade people to treasure natural resources and protect rivers.

Co-author Lin Meng-lung (林孟龍), one of Wang's doctoral students, said he had addressed the issue of pollution in the books to highlight the dramatic changes to the natural environment.

"Now I can't find a river to go fishing on or enjoy like I could when I was a child growing up in Shihlin district [in Taipei City]," Lin said.

DPP Legislator Tsao Chi-hung (曹啟鴻), from Pingtung County, said that rivers should be public areas that residents can easily get to, rather than illegal waste dumps.

Tsao, who established the Blue Tunkang River Conservation Association (藍色東港溪保育協會), also said limited water resources should be used wisely.

"For example, pumping groundwater unwisely to build a `kingdom of aquaculture' in the past turned out to be a cause of stratum sinkage in coastal areas in Pingtung," Tsao said, referring to a name given to Taiwan when fish and shrimp farming were important industries. "We have paid for this dearly."

Hwang Jing-san (黃金山), director-general of the Water Resources Agency (水利署), said increasing water demand from industry would create more challenges.

According to Hwang, Robert Tsao (曹興誠), chairman of chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp, told Premier Yu Shyi-kun recently that daily water demand from the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park in 2021 would be 2.23 million tonnes of water.

"If so, we will have to build a reservoir with a storage capacity of 350 million tonnes of water, which would cost more than NT$100 billion. Can such a tiny island achieve this?" Hwang said.