A fallow project involving 18,000 hectares of fields near the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (
Farmers will be informed about the details of the fallow project in early March, Council of Agriculture officials said yesterday.
A recent drought in Taiwan turned into a nightmare for high-tech firms at the park last week, when the water supply was reduced by 7 to 10 percent per day.
To deal with water-shortage problems caused by the worst-ever drought in two decades, a task force was established yesterday by the Science-based Industrial Park Administration under the National Science Council.
Around 50,000 tonnes of water per day are currently being trucked into the park by water tanker to meet the shortfall in supply.
The pressure would be unbearable, officials said, if foundries were at full-capacity output. Currently, they are operating at about half capacity.
Yesterday, officials from the science council warned that the water supply could be cut altogether by mid-March if no solution is forthcoming.
The water suspension warning has worried chipmakers, which are huge contributors to Taiwan's economy.
"We may face serious problems if the drought continues and the government doesn't arrange water resources efficiently," said J.H. Tzeng, a spokesman at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (台積電), said yesterday.
Investors said, however, the shortage is not acute enough to hurt chipmakers and manufacturers of flat-panel displays -- both of which require large amounts of water to rinse off etching chemicals used during manufacturing processes.
Science council officials said that an immediate fallow of 1,800 hectares of fields near the park would be the only way out. Yesterday, science council Vice Chairman Huang Wen-hsiung (黃文雄) was busy communicating with the agriculture council to make the fallow project a feasible solution.
Showing understanding of the problem, COA Chairman Fan Cheng-chung (范振宗) and representatives of the economic affairs ministry's Water Resources Department (水利處) yesterday approved the fallow project to divert water from the Touchien River (頭前溪), mainly used for land irrigation, to the park.
"Daily water demand from companies at the park is about 95,000 tonnes, and the extra water supply from the river will just about make up for the deficiency," said the park administration's director-general, James Lee (李界木).
Lee said the water crisis will hopefully abate in April, the beginning of the rainy season.
With Taiwan's WTO accession, the agriculture council has allocated funds to compensate farmers, who will be affected by a planned fallow project that involves some 46,000 hectares of land.
Agriculture council officials said that the 1,800 hectares of land near the park -- which were originally classified to be left fallow in the second phase of the project -- will instead be left fallow immediately.
The new plan, officials said, could dig deep into government coffers. Lee said that those taking advantage of the extra water supply would be expected to pay an extra 5 percent for water fees as compensation for the emergency measures.
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