A group of irrigation association members yesterday filed an administrative lawsuit against the government’s move to nationalize 17 irrigation associations, as it plans to establish an agency to oversee them.
The Council of Agriculture (COA) is next month to inaugurate its Agency of Irrigation. It would govern 17 irrigation associations nationwide, which have nearly 1.5 million members.
To make the change, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in July passed the Act of Irrigation (農田水利法), despite the protests of some irrigation association members and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Photo: Chen Yun, Taipei Times
A group of association members and KMT lawmakers yesterday told a news conference in Taipei that they hope to suspend the government’s plan by filing an administrative lawsuit.
The government did not legally expropriate the associations’ assets and facilities, said lawyer Su Huan-chih (蘇煥智), a former Tainan County commissioner who served before Tainan was upgraded to a special municipality in 2010.
While the act stipulates that the Irrigation Association Organization Act (農田水利會組織通則) would no longer be applicable, it cannot abolish the associations that have existed for more than a century, he said.
Su represented more than 300 members of the Chianan Irrigation Association — the largest in the nation with nearly 320,000 members — when filing a lawsuit at the Taipei High Administrative Court.
The DPP would not manage to take over the associations if they are in debt, KMT Legislator Wen Yu-hsia (溫玉霞) said, asking why the government would convert the associations into a state-run body when many state-run enterprises have become privatized.
Reforming the associations is just a pretext for the DPP to rob the associations of their assets and their rights to water supply, said Huang Chin-chun (黃金春), director of a group opposed to the move.
He had been a supporter of the DPP, but was disappointed with how the DPP administration rudely pushed through the reform, Huang said, adding that he was concerned that the irrigation sources of farmers would be sacrificed for industrial users.
Converting the associations into a government body would allow the government to expand irrigated areas from nearly 310,000 hectares to 680,000 hectares, better manage water use and prevent water theft and pollution, the agriculture council has said.
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