The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday accused the government of not being proactive enough in addressing the water shortage and said that the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program failed to prevent the situation.
Under the program, the Executive Yuan is to invest about NT$250.8 billion (US$8.77 billion) over eight years to build a quality water environment project, with a special budget of NT$110 billion allocated for its first phase from 2017 to this year, the KMT said.
The project’s aim is to build an environment without water shortages or flooding, where people have access to quality drinking water and water is a part of public recreation, it said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
It also set a goal to increase regular water supply by 1 million tonnes per day and emergency water supply by 2 million tonnes per day, it said.
The project is in its fourth year, but the Ministry of Economic Affairs has not given the public a clear account of how much of those goals it has achieved, KMT Culture and Communications Committee director-general Alicia Wang (王育敏) told a news conference in Taipei.
She urged the ministry to provide the public with an update on the project’s progress, including its effectiveness and completion rate.
Besides lack of rainfall, poor dredging practices have also contributed to low water levels at the nation’s reservoirs, she said.
The overall sedimentation rate across the nation’s reservoirs was 29.59 percent in August last year, up from 28 percent in June 2015, the KMT said, citing Water Resources Agency statistics.
“Where was all the money spent?” Wang asked, adding that despite the implementation of the program, dredging efforts have declined.
Since August last year, there have been warning signs of tightening water supplies, committee deputy director-general Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should personally inspect water supplies at the nation’s reservoirs, she said, adding that former presidents Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had done so when the nation faced similar situations in 2015 and 2005 respectively.
Water shortages affect not just ordinary citizens, but could also have an impact on the business sector, economy and industries, or even cause social problems, committee deputy director-general Huang Tzu-che (黃子哲) said, urging the president to address the issue.
In October last year, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) wrote on Facebook that the nation was facing an unprecedented challenge with the typhoon season seeing the least rainfall in four decades, Huang said.
Su also wrote that as no one knew how much rainfall there would be each year, the nation needed to always be prepared for water shortages, Huang added.
Water restrictions have now been imposed, he said, questioning what preparations the Executive Yuan has made.
The government has not put enough effort into solving the water shortage, Alicia Wang said, adding that the president should personally direct the government’s response.
She recommended that the government use television commercials to remind the public to conserve water.
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