Anger mounts as water woes continue

There is water everywhere in the Shihmen Reservoir, but not enough to drink for many nearby residents in Taoyuan County, and relief is slow in coming.

Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) said yesterday that the turbidity in the reservoir has made purification problematic and that water supplies will have to continue on a rotational basis for the approximately 600,000 households in the county.

Some were optimistic about the situation on Sunday when Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said that water supply would have to return to normal by yesterday.

The problem came after Typhoon Matsa, which passed through Taiwan Friday, brought torrential rains and stirred up sediment and brought silt and debris into the reservoir.

Taoyuan County Commissioner Chu Li-lun (朱立倫) is scheduled to report to the premier in the afternoon on the problem and request that Shihmen Reservoir improvement works be included in the central government's eight-year, NT$80 billion (US$2.54 billion) flood-control project.

The state-run Taiwan Water Corporation (TWC), which is under the economics ministry, said water supply reached 60 percent of the normal level as of yesterday.

TWC Chairman Lee Wen-liang (李文良) has offered to step down from his post to take responsibility for the water supply problem in Taoyuan, but the premier, who was in an orphanage in Liukui (六龜) Township, Kaohsiung County, yesterday morning, said that he would travel to Taoyuan County later in the day to learn about the situation before deciding how to respond.

Meanwhile, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus in the Legislative Yuan said that the central and local governments should work together to solve the water supply problem.

William Lai (賴清德), a DPP whip in the legislature, said that opposition parties should not ask Ho to step down every time a problem arises, saying that the problem stems from unsuitable development of hilly terrain in Taoyuan over the past decade.

Lai made the remarks after the People First Party (PFP) legislative caucus criticized Ho for being incompetent and asked Hsieh to replace her before the new legislative session next month.

Sun Ta-chien (孫大千), a PFP whip in the legislature, said that Taoyuan has faced water shortages since last year, and that this time it happened after only the first two typhoons of the year, adding that "negligence is to blame."

On Ho's views that water supply situation has improved this year, Sun said he felt sorry for the 1.8 million residents in Taoyuan after Ho has said that she felt that the water shortage situation was improving.

Sun asked Ho to come forward and explain what exactly she meant by that statement and to tell residents what it was that she had actually done to improve the situation over the past year.

The problem with the water supply first cropped up last August when Typhoon Aere hit the nation.

Water supplies to households in most of Taoyuan were cut off for 19 days.

Both the chairman and the general manager of the TWC subsequently resigned over the fiasco.