Hsieh says dam not needed

Kaohsiung City Mayor Frank Hsieh said yesterday at the Kaohsiung City Council that since the city's biggest water problem is quality, not quantity, building a new dam is not what the city needed. Hsieh made the remark in response to independent city Councilor Gian Gin-cheng's (簡金城) question as to whether there was a need to build the Meinung Dam to help resolve the city's water shortage. In order to improve the area's water quality, Hsieh said that his administration had been busy building water purification plants and water pipes to connect them with the Nanhua Reservoir. Hsieh added that if the government does decide to build the Meinung Dam, the NT$15 billion budget to improve Kaohsiung's water would have to be diverted for use in constructing the dam.