TSU critical of water rationing

TSU lawmakers yesterday attacked the water-rationing measures implemented by the Taipei City Government in response to the drought, saying it was a politically motivated scheme designed to make the central government look incompetent.

They argued that it was unnecessary for the city government to adopt the water-rationing scheme because the water stored in the Feitsui Reservoir -- the city's main source of water -- was sufficient to last at least two more months.

Taipei City officials denied the accusations, saying the water-control scheme was needed because rainfall this year had been much less than in previous years.

The city's water shortage became a politically charged issue on Friday last week, when former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) demanded Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) take responsibility for his "mismanagement" of water resources.

Lee's attacks on Ma have been interpreted as a concerted effort by the former president to damage the mayor's image and decrease his chances of re-election in the year-end mayoral vote.

Under Lee's instruction, TSU lawmakers have been pursuing the issue.

After a meeting with officials from the Water Resources Agency, Feitsui Reservoir and Taiwan Power Company yesterday, TSU lawmakers concluded that the water restrictions were carried out for "political reasons."

TSU lawmaker Huang Chung-yuan (黃宗源) said that each day Taipei City consumes 2.5 million tonnes of water, of which 1.6 million tonnes comes from the Nanshih River (南勢溪).

The Feitsui Reservoir only needs to supply 900,000 tonnes each day, he said, so there is no need to discharge 2.5 million tonnes of water a day, as has been the case.

Citing information provided by the Feitsui Reservoir to back up their accusations, the lawmakers said that the 100 million tonnes of water stored in the reservoir would be enough to supply households for nearly 80 days, even if it does not rain.

"It is unnecessary to implement the water-rationing scheme for the time being," TSU lawmaker Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) said.

"We suspect that the measures were carried out to embarrass the government."

Since May 13, the Taipei City government has been adopting water-rationing measures in which water services are suspended for 24 hours to parts of the city in rotation. The city government announced on Monday that it may have to toughen its water restrictions as early as next Tuesday so that water is cut off to households once every three days instead of once every five days.

TSU lawmaker Lo Chih-ming (羅志明) said that rainfall in Taipei last year was three times that of previous years. The Feitsui Reservoir was built purely for households' use, he said, so the water-rationing initiative should not be necessary.

Ou Chin-der (歐晉德), deputy mayor of Taipei, said the information he had contradicted the TSU lawmakers.

He said the Nanshih River only supplied 400,000 tonnes of water a day, not 1.6 million tonnes as claimed by the TSU. He added that rainfall for this year was less than half the average of previous years.

Surveys show that 80 percent of Taipei citizens think highly of the anti-drought measures adopted by the city government, he said.