In the latest bout of an ongoing dispute over the sharing of fresh water between Taipei City and Taipei County, city officials yesterday offered only five tonnes of an additional 120,000 tonnes a day requested by the county.
In response to the city's action, Taipei County authorities cancelled a "water supply ceremony" scheduled for tommorow during which President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen had pledged to push for the right of Taipei County to have a more equitable share of water from the Feitsui Reservoir. The reservoir is located in Taipei County but was built and has been managed by Taipei City since 1984.
Lin Hsi-yao (
"The city pretends to show great respect for President Chen, but actually it has put him in a very embarrassing situation," he said.
"It seems obvious that Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Lin made the remarks after the city said that it would provide only five additional tonnes of fresh water to the county's Panchiao and Chungho cities starting tomorrow -- but just for the next seven days -- in order to provide some basis for the holding of the "water supply ceremony."
City spokesperson Wu Yu-sheng (
"We totally respect the president's campaign promise and we're happy to see it materialize, but I'm afraid this is the best we can do," Wu said.
Wu added that the city did not have the slightest intention of embarrassing the president or to create hostility.
"We'll follow up with a letter to explain the matter to the president," he said.
Tsay Huei-sheng (
Two proposed solutions were that the city could provide an additional five tonnes of fresh water to Panchiao and Chungho cities while keeping the daily emergency water supply for other places in the county the same. The other possibility was that the city could provide an additional 10 tonnes of fresh water to the two areas, while the daily emergency supply for other places would be reduced by five tonnes.
"Although it would leave us with only five tonnes of fresh water for emergency allocation purposes, to show respect for the head of state and to share the water resources with other localities, the city is willing to take the risk, however, for up to seven days," Tsay said at the press conference held after the meeting.
Tsay said that although the county asked for an extension of the seven-day period, or better yet, for it to be provided with 120,000 tonnes of fresh water on a daily basis, it was a request that was impossible to meet.
"While the daily emergency allocation volume amounts to 300,000 tonnes, Taipei County requests an average of 200,000 tonnes of water for emergency purposes every day, which leaves only 100,000 tonnes on hand," Tsay said.
He said that the city may be able to provide the county with a larger water supply on a daily basis when the fifth water treatment facility in Chihtan, Taipei County is completed in October 2003. Its processing capability is set to be 700,000 tonnes.
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