The water level at the Zengwen Reservoir (曾文水庫) in southern Taiwan is below 30 percent of capacity. Together with the nearby Wushantou Reservoir (烏山頭水庫), it holds only about 200 million tonnes of water.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has adopted water saving measures, including suspending irrigation for the first crop in Tainan and Chiayi County, a move that is likely to lead to farmland lying fallow.
For the past three years, central and southern Taiwan have had a serious water shortage, mostly due to the lack of typhoons. Since last year, southern cities such as Chiayi and Tainan have been facing a crisis that involves reservoirs gradually drying up. The Nanhua Reservoir (南化水庫), which supplies households in Tainan and Kaohsiung, has stopped supplying local government agencies and state-run businesses for nonessential purposes.
The Southern Region Water Resources Office is digging 11 wells along the Kaoping River (高屏溪) in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, with the project scheduled to be completed by next month.
However, the project has raised concerns among Pingtung residents, who say the government is planning to extract local groundwater for domestic and industrial use in Kaohsiung.
Without effective management, there would be no water left for farmers in Pingtung, they say.
They are also concerned that groundwater extraction might worsen land subsidence in coastal townships, leading to an ecological catastrophe.
The water shortage in central and southern Taiwan is likely to get worse before the rainy season begins. Apart from calling on the public to conserve water, the government should establish a national task force for water resources that integrates cross-ministerial efforts to respond to the problem.
Although the water shortage is likely to become more serious, industrial and other economic activities are necessary for the country. The first goal of the task force would be to discuss who would get priority for water use and set up a compensatory mechanism.
As Pingtung might supply underground water to industrial users in Kaohsiung, the task force should seek to strike a balance between agricultural and industrial development. If the industrial development in Kaohsiung is to be deemed more important, Pingtung’s agricultural sector should be compensated.
If the water shortage causes an economic downturn, necessitate economic transformation or a shift in supply chains in Pingtung, water supply policies should take local needs into account. Although groundwater in the county is abundant, the increasing frequency of extreme weather events might change the situation in the long term. The task force should plan water resource allocation in advance.
Taiwan’s water resources are also an important strategic asset. If Hsinchu faces a water shortage, it would strike a blow to economic activity in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) and affect the high-tech industry. For Hsinchu-based Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, which has been called a “sacred mountain protecting the country,” water supply is essential, making it “sacred water protecting the country.”
If the government pays attention to the protection of water resources and plans for the long-term conservation of water, the effects of shortages might not be too serious.
Taiwan has long paid too little attention to water resource protection. An Academia Sinica study showed that the average annual leakage rate of tap water is about 15.6 percent, which means that nearly 500 million tonnes of water, or twice the capacity of the Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫), is wasted every year.
Taiwan Water Corp has pledged to reduce the leakage rate to less than 10 percent by 2031, but its slow action will do little to address shortages in the short term.
As some cities have especially high leakage rates, the task force should try to speed up measures to adress the situation, instead of kicking the can down the road for nearly a decade.
The water crisis in southern Taiwan can also be seen as an opportunity for the government. It should learn from the experience and bolster efforts to protect water resources. It should also upgrade the strategic status of water resource utilization.
As for the long-term goal, the government should take concrete action to protect the resources. The Water Resources Agency, which is subordinate to the economic ministry, should be merged with Taiwan Water Co and the new entity be upgraded to a “ministry of water resources,” which would be in charge of all water affairs. It would be a “shock therapy” for decisionmakers in the field, but it would push them to operate efficiently.
It would also enable the government to propose better policies, plan budgets and deploy human resources more rationally to reach the nation’s water protection goals. The government should seek to ensure that water shortages do not affect the economy every year.
Myers Su is a political commentator.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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