Life

Writers hit out at water diversion for Central Taiwan Science Park

• Publication Date：05/30/2012
• Source： Taiwan Today
• By  June Tsai

Over 100 writers and artists called on the government May 29 to stop a water diversion project that farmers say is taking their irrigation water for use at the Central Taiwan Science Park in Changhua County’s Erlin Township.

In a petition, the artists said that while the Executive Yuan is mulling an alternative plan for developing the science park, with results scheduled for June 8, contractors have continued covert work on the project, presumably with the knowledge of the science park administration and local irrigation association, which outsourced the construction work.

The NT$2.13 billion (US$74 million) project is intended to draw water from Cizaipi Canal in Xizhou Township—a century-old waterway that helps irrigate 18,820 hectares of farmland in the county—for use at the site of the CTSP fourth-phase expansion.

Local farmers have protested that the water project is robbing them of already insufficient irrigation water. The movement to protect the canal from being drained began August 2011, but construction on the diversion project kicked off in February.

In March, AU Optronics Corp., which had been expected to occupy 56 percent of the 631-hectare Erlin site, decided not to build any facilities there. The decision gave rise to alternative planning by the government.

“Since a different use for the science park is being considered, and even the Water Resources Agency said it is inappropriate to redirect water from farmland, it makes no sense to continue taking the water,” well-known novelist Chu Tien-hsin said during a protest in Taipei City.

The demonstration was organized by Xizhou farmers, who discovered earlier this week that the contractor was continuing to lay underground pipe.

Wu Yin-ning, a writer and Xizhou resident, said half of the farmland in the area has no water supply, with the shortage rate increasing from 22 percent in 2002 to 48 percent in 2010.

“Article 18 of the Water Act stipulates that other uses of water come after irrigation use,” Wu said, adding that diversion for uses other than irrigation should be temporary.

Moreover, as the estimated daily demand for water at the CTSP has been slashed from 160,000 metric tons to 4,800, “there is no reason not to stop the diversion work,” she said. (THN)