"The more things change..."
Although there has been some success in prevention, in view of the speed with which the environment is deteriorating, many experts are still worried. "Taiwan is already losing its soil inch by inch, and the real crux of the problem, over-use of groundwater, has not been solved," notes Wang Chung-ho.
The most obvious thing is that illegal wells are still quite common.
"Although illegal wells can be filled and sealed up according to the law, if there is no water source to replace them, suddenly sealing them will certainly endanger people's livelihood." This is openly admitted in the Water Resources Agency's "Land Subsidence Prevention Report." Because every well sealing leads to opposition, the police have to be brought in. There are many obstacles. Also, local councils will often just cut budgets for water-related items. As a result, local governments are not very willing to enforce the law in these instances.
Industrial policy is also a key point, say many experts with frustration. In recent years environmental awareness has dawned in north and central Taiwan and one industrial park after another has moved south. Because industries don't have much room for compromise on their use of water, and once started the supply must be guaranteed, this increases the pressure on groundwater usage. And often the government decides first on the industrial park location and only then makes preparations for water resources, thus making the management of water resources even more difficult.
The chairman of the Changhua Aquaculture Association, Lin Chi-min, is upset. He points out that the fish farmers of the association use groundwater in accordance with the law, and in recent years most have switched over to recycled water, while the real big users are the large factories. Tucked away behind private factory gates, pumps are going 24 hours a day and it is difficult for outsiders to know what's going on, yet there is precious little criticism.
Wang Chung-ho says that currently Taiwan uses a yearly average of 5.5 billion tons of groundwater, with 90% being used in the southern and central parts of the country. Rainfall in the south has always been very uneven; add to this the change in global climate patterns, and rain during the dry season in the future is likely to steadily diminish and increase dependence on groundwater. Obviously after 20 years of over-use, the imbalance between surface water and groundwater is getting worse, and Wang issues a serious appeal. Unless the situation is improved, not only will agricultural and industrial development in central and southern Taiwan be hampered by lack of water resources, further, if you want to transfer water from north to south, or from east to west, this will certainly affect development in the northern and eastern part of the country.
Long-term, high-volume, concentrated over-pumping of groundwater has been difficult to deal with, even for the Pingtung Plain where groundwater is plentiful. In coastal Chiatung Township, situated along the coast, land subsidence is severe. The picture shows a home sunken a story deep into a fish pond.