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Yu says Soong failed to fix Kaohsiung's lousy water

Aiming to outshine People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), who once served as the Taiwan provincial governor, Pre-mier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday said that the improvement in the quality of tap water in Kaohsiung City demonstrates the efficiency of the Democratic Progressive Party-led government.

"While most people have ridiculed the poor quality of tap water in Kaohsiung as the city's shame, I'd say it's the shame of those politicians who failed to do the job right," Yu said.

"Do you know who should be responsible for all this? The Taiwan Provincial Government," he said.

Soong was the provincial governor between 1993 and 1998. Many of its functions were transferred to the Cabinet after it was downsized in 1998.

Yu called on Kaohsiung residents to trust the government and vote for the DPP in next March's presidential poll.

"We might not be as eloquent as our PFP and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) counterparts, but we mean what we say and exert ourselves to realize our promises."

Yu made the remarks yesterday morning while receiving Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and 100 city residents. They presented the improved tap water to Yu to express their gratitude for the Cabinet's efforts to put President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) pledge into practice.

During an inspection trip to Kaohsiung City in August 2000, Chen promised to improve the city's quality of tap water within three years.

Even though the legislature delayed approval of the NT$15 billion budget for the water improvement project for six months, Yu said the Cabinet managed to complete the three-year project two months ahead of schedule.

"We also spent only NT$10.9 billion, or NT$4 billion less than we had originally estimated," he said.

Former KMT administrations had blamed the poor water quality on the old water mains which they claimed dated back to the Ching dynasty and on riverside pig farms.

"The fact is, however, the city didn't have tap water until the Japanese colonial era," he said.

Illegal dumping and pig farms along the Kaoping River, which supplies water to millions of residents in Kaohsiung city and county, had made the tap water notorious for its smell.

Most people complained about the water's chemical odor and used it only for rinsing and cleaning, especially since the discovery in July 2000 that toxic solvents were being dumped in the Chishan River, which flows into the Kaoping River.

Most residents buy spring water, which is drawn from the mountains in neighboring Pingtung County, for drinking and cooking.

The NT$15 billion water quality improvement project included moving the intake points in Kaoping River 16km upstream and building three advanced water treatment plants and water softening facilities. The Ministry of Economic Affairs spent another NT$5 billion on relocating the pig farms.

Chen will attend the opening ceremony for the new facilities on Sunday.

To ensure water quality, Yu encouraged Kaohsiung residents to clean their cisterns frequently. The Taiwan Water Supply Corp will also start replacing old and leaking water mains next year.
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