Tainan County Council launched a petition yesterday calling for a water channeling project to be scrapped on concerns that it led to landslides that wiped out Siaolin Village (小林) in Kaohsiung County during Typhoon Morakot.
The project, which involves channeling water from Kaohsiung’s Laonong River to Tainan’s Zengwun Reservoir and delivering treated water back to Kaohsiung, is intended to resolve water shortages in the Kaohsiung area.
The council will submit the petition to the Cabinet.
Wu Chien-pao (吳健保), speaker of the council, said residents had opposed the project from the start because it involved blasting the ground with dynamite, which they feared could make topography in the area unstable.
The Water Resources Agency, which is in charge of the NT$21.2 billion (US$645 million) project, has already been fined NT$1.5 million for failing to obtain permission for part of the work.
The construction is expected to be completed in 2012.
Wu said the reservoir had seldom reached full capacity in the past, but the situation has changed in recent years because of global warming.
Channeling water from the Laonong River could be too much for the reservoir during torrential rains, flooding communities downstream, Wu said.
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