Aboriginal communities yesterday called on the government to immediately stop all construction work on a water tunnel connecting Laonong River (荖濃溪) to the Tseng-wen Reservoir, otherwise they would face protest from residents.
“We will fight to the end using the methods passed down by our ancestors. All we ask is that the government leave us alone and we will manage to find our own water,” said Lin Nan-chi (林南吉), a hunter from the Bunun Tribe and resident of Namasia Township (那瑪夏) in Kaoshiung County, one of the worst-hit areas during Typhoon Morakot last August.
The government in 2003 approved a NT$21.2 billion (US$663.7 million) cross-region water extraction project to redirect water from Laonong River to Tsengwen.
The Water Resource Agency said that after it is completed, the tunnel could provide 600,000m³ of usable water to residents every day.
Opponents, however, said the construction was the main reason behind the massive mudslides that occurred after Morakot, killing about 500 people.
Huang Huan-chang (黃煥彰), a professor at Tainan Community College, said the project made no contribution to resolving the water supply issue. In fact, it could create problems, as the construction would cause irreversible damage to the ecosystem, he said.
Huang said that at present the reservoir had accumulated at least 90 million cubic meters of silt, leaving it with only 37 percent capacity to receive water.
“This means the reservoir would be insufficient to contain water extracted from Laonong,” he said.
Severe mudslides during Morakot rose the Laonong River bed by 23m, Huang said, adding that another major typhoon or prolonged torrential rain would crush the river bed, plugging up the water pathway with more silt and mud.
As the construction sits on at least four fault lines, a major earthquake could crush the tunnel, creating dangerous floods and subjecting all nearby villages and townships — occupied mostly by Aborigines — to catastrophe, he said.
What the Aboriginal community wants, Lin said, is to be “left alone.”
“We have lived here for centuries. Our ancestors taught us how to live in harmony with nature. Shouldn’t these so-called experts and academics listen to what we have to say?” he asked.
The agency said while it would listen to opinions from all sides, research showed that construction of the tunnel was unrelated to the fatalities and damage caused by Morakot, which it said was attributable to global climate change.
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