Vice Premier Lin Hsin-yi (林信義) confirmed yesterday that a fallow project covering 18,000 hectares of farmland in Hsinchu and Taoyuan counties will be carried out and will last until the end of May in a bid to solve the water-shortage problem in the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (新竹科學園區).
If the extreme measure doesn't solve the problem, Lin said, the government may consider producing artificial rain.
The fallow project will save an average of 650,000 tonnes of water daily used to irrigate rice-growing areas of Hsinchu County and Taoyuan County.
Despite its pledge to offer compensation to the farmers affected, the government's decision still angered farmers in Miaoli County, who staged a demonstration outside the industrial park yesterday to express their discontent.
They claimed that the park had used up most of the water supply from the Yunho Mountain Dam located in Miaoli County. They also criticized the government's emergency policy as "erroneous."
However, standing firm on the government's stance, Lin said that it is the government's duty to supply a sufficient amount of water to everyone who needs it.
"Both the problem and response are temporary. In addition, the water supply at the industrial park will not be cut altogether in March as reported by the media,because we have figured out a plan to tackle the problem," he said.
The water-shortage problem at the industrial park should be resolved soon when the Shihmen Dam in Taoyuan County goes online providing a daily water supply of 80,000 tonnes to the area. The daily water demand at the park is about 110,000 tonnes.
Anticipating little rain for the remaining three months of the dry season, the government decided to implement a fallow project in Taoyuan and Hsinchu counties, which may save an average of 650,000 tonnes of water daily.
To solve the area's water-shortage problem once and for all, the government is speeding up the construction of the second Paoshan reservoir in Hsinchu County and hopes to complete it by the end of 2004.
Once it is completed, the reservoir is expected to provide 590,000 tonnes of water daily.
The government also hopes to finish laying the last 300m of pipeline connecting Shihmen Dam and Hsinchu County by April. Once it is completed, the Hsinchu area will have an additional daily water supply of 200,000 tonnes.
Of the 18 billion tonnes of water produced annually by Taiwan's reservoirs, rivers, and subterranean water supplies, 75 percent is used for agricultural purposes, while 16 percent is used by families and the remaining 9 percent is used by industry.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
RSS