By June Tsai
The news last month that work on the controversial Hushan Reservoir in western Taiwan’s Yunlin County is past the halfway mark and set for a 2014 finish reopened festering wounds for local residents and environmental activists. It also raised questions over the need for this oft-maligned dam, which many believe was conceived solely to provide water for the local petrochemical industry.
Hushan, with its storage capacity of 530 million cubic meters, has been dogged by controversy since its inception in 2000. Opponents claim that government decision-makers have pushed ahead with project despite the area’s concentration of fault zones and a raft of negative environmental impacts.
Lee Ken-cheng, secretary-general of Kaohsiung-based Citizens of the Earth, and a leading member of the anti-Hushan movement, said the irony of the dam is that the government considered it less environmentally friendly than another plan under consideration at the time.
“It was only chosen because the construction site for the original proposal was ruled out by the 7.3-magnitude September 21, 1999 Earthquake in central Taiwan,” he said. “The reality is that Hushan should never have been built.”
According to Lee, the project stumbled out of the blocks courtesy of a conditional approval from the Environmental Protection Agency. “But over the past years, the developer has altered the project three times, attesting to the Alice-in-Wonderland nature of this project,” he said.
Lee believes that this unsatisfactory state of affairs is best illustrated by the final stage of Hushan. This involves building a channel to connect the reservoir with Jhoushuei River, Taiwan’s longest watercourse, which runs between Yunlin and Nantou counties.
But since construction on Hushan began in 2007, devastating typhoons and heavy rainfalls have made this plan unfeasible. The Water Resources Agency now proposes building a 4,160-meter underground tunnel through mountains instead.
For Lee, this proposal is just another brick in the formidable wall of procedural flaws that have plagued the Hushan decision-making process.
“Water Resources Agency Director-General Yang Wei-fuu claims Hushan will be Taiwan’s last dam,” Lee said. “But this statement leaks like a sieve given the official line that the reservoir was designed to serve as a stable water supply for domestic consumption.”
Hushan stands in stark contrast to the commonly held belief that water is Mother Nature’s gift to all, Lee said, adding that the dam was always intended to provide water for Yunlin’s offshore sixth naphtha cracker plant operated by Formosa Plastics Group.
Lee said at present, the FPG plant uses water sourced from Jiji Weir in the upstream area of Jhoushuei River, with the facility providing 260,000 tons per day, or just over half of the refinery’s needs. “To make up for this shortfall, the government is diverting water from local irrigation projects,” he added, citing a Ministry of Economic Affairs report.
“Once Hushan comes on line, total water production for both sites will reach 694,000 tons per day,” Lee said. “A little math pokes holes in government claims that the reservoir is for domestic use.”
Jiji’s staggering rate of sedimentation also highlights why, in Lee’s opinion, large capture facilities are not the answer to Taiwan’s water needs.
Citing the 36-year-old Zenwen Reservoir, Taiwan’s largest dam at 700 million cubic meters, as an example, Lee said sediment accounts for 22.3 percent of its capacity. The situation is worse in Tainan County, with the 17-year-old Nanhua Reservoir silted up to the tune of 32.9 percent, he added.
“What use is a dam that takes five to 10 years and vast amounts of capital to complete if its capacity is sharply reduced in just two or three decades? This question takes on even greater significance once the irreversible deformation and fragmentation of Taiwan’s rivers are taken into account.”
Chiang Ming-lang, director of the WRA Water Resources management Division, admits that his agency’s dredging programs have not been able to keep pace with the rate of silt accumulation. “How and where to move the dredged material have also caused major headaches,” he added.
Aside from sediment issues, Chiang feels that the country’s dams have performed as envisioned, and are well-suited to the job of drawing in water from rivers that are mostly short and descend quickly to the sea. “Taiwan’s watercourses have minimal water-retention ability,” he said. “So far, dams seem to be the most cost-effective way to capture and utilize surface water.”
But Lee dismissed Chiang’s position as “hogwash,” describing it as a tired argument that has been used to champion new dam projects over the past six decades.
In the postwar drive to boost Taiwan’s economy, more than 100 dams, reservoirs and weirs were built nationwide. Proponents argue that they have been instrumental in overcoming seasonal difference in rainfall and regulating water supply for the island. According to the WRA, a number of water management projects are still being considered for Taiwan, including those in Changhua, Kaohsiung, Hsinchu, Pingtung and Taichung.
“The question is not about greenlighting dams,” Lee said. “It is about developing a sustainable water resource policy and implementing far-sighted development strategy and governance.”
“The government needs to reconsider the direction of Taiwan’s development,” he said. “The current emphasis on steel, petrochemical and optoelectronics industries, which consume vast amounts of water, do not augur well for the island’s environment.”
Lee called on the government to up efforts aimed at cutting back on water loss through runoff and leakage, rolling out water recycling technology R&D and managing the use of underground water. “Taiwan’s water loss rate of 30 percent is unacceptably high and equates to losing one Zenwen-sized dam each year,” he said.
Another area that requires immediate attention is the country’s water consumption rate. “In Taipei, each citizen goes through 350 liters of water per day, compared to 150 liters for a Dutch citizen,” he said. “If this was brought down to 200 liters, the surplus could fill another Zenwen.”
“The bottom line is that Taiwan does not need dams like Hushan,” Lee said. “If enhanced water management practices are put into place, then existing catchment yields will rise creating a sustainable water future for all.”
The news last month that work on the controversial Hushan Reservoir in western Taiwan’s Yunlin County is past the halfway mark and set for a 2014 finish reopened festering wounds for local residents and environmental activists. It also raised questions over the need for this oft-maligned dam, which many believe was conceived solely to provide water for the local petrochemical industry.
Hushan, with its storage capacity of 530 million cubic meters, has been dogged by controversy since its inception in 2000. Opponents claim that government decision-makers have pushed ahead with project despite the area’s concentration of fault zones and a raft of negative environmental impacts.
Lee Ken-cheng, secretary-general of Kaohsiung-based Citizens of the Earth, and a leading member of the anti-Hushan movement, said the irony of the dam is that the government considered it less environmentally friendly than another plan under consideration at the time.
“It was only chosen because the construction site for the original proposal was ruled out by the 7.3-magnitude September 21, 1999 Earthquake in central Taiwan,” he said. “The reality is that Hushan should never have been built.”
According to Lee, the project stumbled out of the blocks courtesy of a conditional approval from the Environmental Protection Agency. “But over the past years, the developer has altered the project three times, attesting to the Alice-in-Wonderland nature of this project,” he said.
Lee believes that this unsatisfactory state of affairs is best illustrated by the final stage of Hushan. This involves building a channel to connect the reservoir with Jhoushuei River, Taiwan’s longest watercourse, which runs between Yunlin and Nantou counties.
But since construction on Hushan began in 2007, devastating typhoons and heavy rainfalls have made this plan unfeasible. The Water Resources Agency now proposes building a 4,160-meter underground tunnel through mountains instead.
For Lee, this proposal is just another brick in the formidable wall of procedural flaws that have plagued the Hushan decision-making process.
“Water Resources Agency Director-General Yang Wei-fuu claims Hushan will be Taiwan’s last dam,” Lee said. “But this statement leaks like a sieve given the official line that the reservoir was designed to serve as a stable water supply for domestic consumption.”
Hushan stands in stark contrast to the commonly held belief that water is Mother Nature’s gift to all, Lee said, adding that the dam was always intended to provide water for Yunlin’s offshore sixth naphtha cracker plant operated by Formosa Plastics Group.
Lee said at present, the FPG plant uses water sourced from Jiji Weir in the upstream area of Jhoushuei River, with the facility providing 260,000 tons per day, or just over half of the refinery’s needs. “To make up for this shortfall, the government is diverting water from local irrigation projects,” he added, citing a Ministry of Economic Affairs report.
“Once Hushan comes on line, total water production for both sites will reach 694,000 tons per day,” Lee said. “A little math pokes holes in government claims that the reservoir is for domestic use.”
Jiji’s staggering rate of sedimentation also highlights why, in Lee’s opinion, large capture facilities are not the answer to Taiwan’s water needs.
Citing the 36-year-old Zenwen Reservoir, Taiwan’s largest dam at 700 million cubic meters, as an example, Lee said sediment accounts for 22.3 percent of its capacity. The situation is worse in Tainan County, with the 17-year-old Nanhua Reservoir silted up to the tune of 32.9 percent, he added.
“What use is a dam that takes five to 10 years and vast amounts of capital to complete if its capacity is sharply reduced in just two or three decades? This question takes on even greater significance once the irreversible deformation and fragmentation of Taiwan’s rivers are taken into account.”
Chiang Ming-lang, director of the WRA Water Resources management Division, admits that his agency’s dredging programs have not been able to keep pace with the rate of silt accumulation. “How and where to move the dredged material have also caused major headaches,” he added.
Aside from sediment issues, Chiang feels that the country’s dams have performed as envisioned, and are well-suited to the job of drawing in water from rivers that are mostly short and descend quickly to the sea. “Taiwan’s watercourses have minimal water-retention ability,” he said. “So far, dams seem to be the most cost-effective way to capture and utilize surface water.”
But Lee dismissed Chiang’s position as “hogwash,” describing it as a tired argument that has been used to champion new dam projects over the past six decades.
In the postwar drive to boost Taiwan’s economy, more than 100 dams, reservoirs and weirs were built nationwide. Proponents argue that they have been instrumental in overcoming seasonal difference in rainfall and regulating water supply for the island. According to the WRA, a number of water management projects are still being considered for Taiwan, including those in Changhua, Kaohsiung, Hsinchu, Pingtung and Taichung.
“The question is not about greenlighting dams,” Lee said. “It is about developing a sustainable water resource policy and implementing far-sighted development strategy and governance.”
“The government needs to reconsider the direction of Taiwan’s development,” he said. “The current emphasis on steel, petrochemical and optoelectronics industries, which consume vast amounts of water, do not augur well for the island’s environment.”
Lee called on the government to up efforts aimed at cutting back on water loss through runoff and leakage, rolling out water recycling technology R&D and managing the use of underground water. “Taiwan’s water loss rate of 30 percent is unacceptably high and equates to losing one Zenwen-sized dam each year,” he said.
Another area that requires immediate attention is the country’s water consumption rate. “In Taipei, each citizen goes through 350 liters of water per day, compared to 150 liters for a Dutch citizen,” he said. “If this was brought down to 200 liters, the surplus could fill another Zenwen.”
“The bottom line is that Taiwan does not need dams like Hushan,” Lee said. “If enhanced water management practices are put into place, then existing catchment yields will rise creating a sustainable water future for all.”
This article first appeared in online Taiwan Today March 11, 2011.
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