Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday raised concerns about the Water Resources Agency’s (WRA) announcement that it was reviewing proposals for the construction of the Meinung Dam in Kaohsiung County.
The proposal, which originally passed an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in 2000, has been on hold because of staunch opposition by the county government and area residents.
Speaking after a luncheon with residents and government representatives, Chen said that the dam was not the best plan for resolving the intensifying water crisis in the nation’s southern areas and added that she believed better alternatives could be found.
The WRA reintroduced the construction proposal on Thursday as a solution to longterm water shortages that have been plaguing Kaohsiung City as well as Kaohsiung and Chiayi counties.
WRA officials said that projects such as the Meinung Dam and a water diversion scheme from the Kaoping Great Lakes (高屏大湖) were all under consideration as alternatives to the current method of pumping water from Tainan County’s Nanhua (南化) and Zengwun (曾文) reservoirs.
The projects are expected to help the area cope with shifting weather patterns that researchers say could result in worsening drought problems, they said.
Liu Chung-ming (柳中明), professor at National Taiwan University, said the area is expected to receive decreasing amounts of rainfall because of shifting trends from the northeastern prevailing winds. Rainfall patterns are further expected to become shorter and heavier, doing little to replenish water reserves in reservoirs.
The two reservoirs in Tainan County are seriously depleted, with water reserves only at 40 percent of total capacity, officials said.
However, critics including Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) said they opposed the dam on safety grounds and voiced fears building the 147m tall dam in an area prone to earthquakes could endanger residents.
Yang said the central government should focus more on conservation and reducing water use both in the agricultural industry and within individual households.
Officials from the state-run Taiwan Water Corporation said rainfall levels have been consistently below historical averages for the area since the heavy rainfall sustained during Typhoon Morakot in August.
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