The military will help dredge the sand, mud and driftwood that Typhoon Morakot deposited in Tsengwen Reservoir in Chiayi County, Water Resources Agency (WRA) Director-General Yang Wei-fu (楊偉甫) said yesterday.
Yang said about 1.2 billion cubic meters of sand and mud brought by Morakot in August has built up in upstream mountain areas. More than 400 million cubic meters of sand and mud have washed into downstream rivers, including the Gaoping (高屏), Laonong (荖濃) and Cishan (旗山).
The Laonong River has carried 91 million cubic meters of sand, mud and driftwood into the reservoir, causing water supply problems and forcing the suspension of irrigation for the first harvest of next year in Chiayi and Tainan counties, Yang said.
As part of the dredging project, about 65 million cubic meters of sand and mud will be removed from the reservoir by late November next year, Yang said.
Sand and rocks removed from the reservoir will be used for construction and land reclamation, WRA Deputy Director-General Wu Yueh-si (吳約西) said.
The Executive Yuan has earmarked NT$34 billion (US$1.05 billion) to dredge the Tsengwen Reservoir and the Nanhua Reservoir in Tainan County, Executive Yuan spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) said last week.
About NT$26 billion will be allocated to desilt the Tsengwen Reservoir over the next six years and NT$8 billion to clean the Nanhua Reservoir.
Tsengwen is Taiwan’s largest reservoir.
Since Morakot, little rain has fallen in southern Taiwan and the two reservoirs have not collected sufficient water, exacerbating the threat of water shortages.
Tainan County Commissioner Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智) said the lack of water would develop into a food crisis if the two reservoirs were not quickly dredged.
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