Having just experienced the nation's worst drought in two decades, Taiwan's delegates to the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, which begins in Johannesburg this week, are eager to attend talks on water supplies.
The UN has identified water -- along with energy, agricultural productivity, biodiversity and ecosystem management -- as an area where concrete results are both essential and achievable
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
"We will take the global discussion seriously because water-management concepts are changing," Water Resources Agency spokesman Chen Shen-hsien (陳伸賢), one of the government's delegates to the summit, told the Taipei Times.
"Our recent experience shows that proper management of water resources is far more important than construction of water reservoirs," said Chen, who had re-presented the agency at weekly meetings of the Cabinet's drought disaster-relief center, which began its 66-day fight against the drought in early May.
Chen said that Taiwan could be benefit from discussions at the summit as well as from a major side event, the WaterDome.
WaterDome, with "No Water No Future" as its slogan, aims to raise awareness.
Stakeholders from the public and private sectors will get the opportunity to exhibit their water-related activities, policies, initiatives, new technologies and products.
Widespread problem
According to the African Water Task Force, more than 1 billion people in the world are without safe drinking water and twice that number lack adequate sanitation. More than 3 million people die every year from diseases caused by unsafe water.
The African Water Task Force has created an Organizing Committee for the WaterDome, which is chaired by Mike Muller, director-general of South Africa's Department of Water Affairs and Forestry.
The department would exchange opinions with Taiwanese officials during their stay in South Africa, Chen said.
In addition, Taiwanese repre-sentatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will seize the opportunity to share their experience in fighting what they believe are inappropriate projects, such as reservoirs designed to ensure water supplies for future industrial zones.
At the World Sustainability Hearing, a parallel event to the UN summit in Johannesburg organized by the US-based Earth Island Institute, Soong Ting-dong (
The World Sustainability Hearing aims to increase participation of ordinary people in global governance. More than 40 civil society organizations have teamed up to provide a stage for their testimony at the Johannesburg summit.
The hearing will provide a forum for people from around the world whose interests would otherwise be unrepresented at the summit. They will discuss what their world is like as well as what has and has not been done by locals, governments and corporations over the past decade.
Global forum
Chung Ming-kuang (鍾明光) of the Meinung People's Association told the Taipei Times that the anti-dam movement in Taiwan would be represented by the group Taiwan Action NGOs (TANGOs) at the Civil Society Global Forum, a side event of the summit, beginning today.
Chung said that an English-language pamphlet introducing the Meinung people's anti-dam movement beginning in 1992 would be widely-distributed in Johannesburg to demonstrate the Meinung people's fight against injustice.
The pamphlet cites geological unsuitability, safety threats to nearby residents, violations of environmental justice and threats to cultural heritage as reasons for the Meining People's opposition to dam projects.
With the summit just around the corner, local water-resource experts from academic circles said that Taiwan needed to review its water management policies and ensure its development is sustainable.
"We have abundant rainfall but we just don't know how to use the gift from the heaven wisely," said Lin I-chen (
According to the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC), Tai-wan's average annual rainfall is more than 2,500mm, which is 2.7 times the world average.
Lin said Taiwan's use of natural resources jeopardizes its future, adding that climate changes will likely become more dramatic in the future.
"Construction-oriented management of water resources should be adjusted," said Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴), vice chairman of the Cabinet's RDEC.
Tsay, a former professor of civil engineering at National Taiwan University, said that inappropriate resource use exacerbate environmental problems in Taiwan.
Tsay said that government restructuring would be Taiwan's way of upgrading its competitiveness, ensuring future generations a sustainable country.
"We really need a Ministry of Environmental Resources, which would integrate all existing agencies pertaining to water resources, land use, forestry management and environmental protection," Tsay said.
The Executive Yuan's proposal to form the new ministry is awaiting approval from the Legislative Yuan.
"Only if legislators abandon political struggle and pass the proposal can Taiwan pursue its sustainable development," Tsay said.
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