Taiwan to share water tips in Japan

The nation's experience in managing groundwater and controlling urban flooding will be shared with representatives from more than 150 countries at the 3rd World Water Forum being held next week in Japan.

"It's a good chance for Taiwan to publicize its experience in water-resources management," said Water Resources Agency Director Hwang Jing-san (黃金山), who will lead a delegation composed of 30 government officials and water experts to the forum.

Water have become a hot environmental topic around the world. Last year, at the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, water was one of five key themes, along with energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity.

At the March 16 to 23 forum, the Water Resources Agency will host sessions on flood mitigation in urban areas and on groundwater and related land disasters.

The agency's participation is the government's first significant effort to connect itself to international trends on sustainable development since President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) signed the Taiwan Declaration on Sustainable Development in January.

According to Chu Wen-sen (朱文生), executive-general of Environmental & Infrastructural Technologies (EIT) and the background introduction writer for the session on groundwater and related land disasters, the nation's experience in establishing 481 monitoring wells to study the characteristics of ground-water might interest other developing countries, such as India.

Between mid-1970s and the early 1990s, over-pumping along coastal areas by aquaculture farms seriously depleted Taiwan's aqui-fers. During that period, the nation consumed 7 billion cubic meters of groundwater annually and received an annual average of 4 billion cubic meters of rainwater.

By groundwater levels and revising land use and agricultural policies, the government was able to limit the amount of groundwater pumped each year to about 5 billion cubic meters, Chu said.

"It was a challenging task because in the 1980s Taiwan did benefit from exporting fishery products, which were the result of over-pumping of groundwater," he said.

Chu that through establishing a monitoring network and imposing water-conservation mea-sures, groundwater pumping in areas affected by land subsidence could be regulated effectively.

He said the nation's water-management experience could be useful to countries whose geologic characters and national conditions are similar.

Lee Hong-yuan (李鴻源), a civil engineering professor at National Taiwan University -- who is preparing materials on flood mitigation in urban areas, said that Taipei City's flood-control strategies would be presented at the forum.

Lee the decision-support model for urban-flood mitigation has been established by adopting advanced-information technology.

"The model functions well and probably is only second to Japan in the world," Lee said, adding that it had been copied by many countries, including China.

Lee the delegation would also talk about the flooding caused by Typhoon Nari in 2001.

The delegation's case study will stress the importance of improving the accuracy of quantitative precipitation forecast for a tropical cyclone, especially within 12 hours after a storm hits land.

"Our experience suggests that we can't only rely on technologies to control water," Lee said, adding that other strategies should include building detention ponds, revising land-use regulations, and establishing a sound flood insurance system.

Lee the government has failed to manage water resources from an ecological perspective.

"Ecological friendly engineering should be a future focus when managing water-related issues ranging from flood prevention to conservation," Lee said.