Floods Are Occurring Annually-What's Wrong with Taiwan's Water Conservancy Policy?

More than 10 days of heavy rains at the beginning of June led to flooding and landslides in central and southern Taiwan. And with the rising of the waters, the conflict that has existed between the central government and the Taiwan provincial government ever since the National Assembly decided to dismantle the latter body has bobbed up to the surface once again.

Taiwan's "plum rains" were particularly heavy this year. The storms brought by the stationary front that creates the plum rains in June quickly raised water levels in the island's reservoirs to dangerous levels. In the center and south of the island, from the mountains to the coastal plains, there were almost daily reports of flooding and landslides. At several locations around Hsinyi Village in Nantou, landslides blocked roads connecting the village to the outside world and brought suffering to residents. Severe flooding of the coastal plains of Chia-yi and Yunlin caused heavy damage to the areas' agriculture and aquaculture. Flooding struck the Tainan Science-Based Industrial Park twice, interfering with the construction of factories and bringing the very future of the park into question. And the more than a meter of water in Kaohsiung's Tienliao Village turned the village's Lunar World Scenic Area into a "water world." As if that weren't enough, the residents of Tienliao had to deal with the mud which remained once the waters receded.

This recent bout of flooding has affected 14 of the island's counties and municipalities, prompting the central government to propose emergency relief measures. Agricultural losses are estimated to be around NT$1 billion and vegetable prices have shot up by 60%. The Council of Agriculture (COA) has declared Yunlin, Chia-yi, Tainan, Changhua, Kaohsiung and Pingtung to be agricultural disaster areas, giving these counties priority for monetary aid and disaster relief loans. Premier Vincent Siew has also allocated some NT$1.8 billion to deal with the flooding at the Tainan science park. The National Science Council has also opened discussions with Chi Mei Optoelectronic Company about moving construction of its LCD plant, currently located in the lowest lying area of the park, to a new location. In addition to mopping up after the floods, the government must now address the problem of frequent landslides caused by the over-development of slopeland. To do so, Minister of the Interior Huang Chu-wen made an emergency announcement which lowered the maximum allowable grade of incline for slopeland which is to be developed from 40% to 30%. He also announced that his ministry would begin more stringent screening of slopeland development projects. Huang estimated that as a result, more than two-thirds of slopeland development projects would never get off the drawing board.

The great number of disasters related to heavy rains in Taiwan this year can be attributed primarily to the continued subsidence of the coastal plains and poor management of water and soil conservancy in the mountains. The main areas affected by land subsidence run down the western coastal plain from Changhua through Chia-yi, Yunlin and Tainan to Pingtung. Fish farming is prevalent in these counties, and ponds dot the entire area. The excessive pumping of ground water by these fish farmers is so severe that the elevation of towns and village in the area is dropping. This creates problems with drainage leading to frequent flooding. In addition, some places which are subject to the influence of ocean tides have been under water for a long time. In Changhua County, about 100 square kilometers have been affected by subsidence. In Chia-yi County, this figure is 250 square kilometers, while in Yunlin County it is 300 square kilometers. In Yunlin, the area of subsidence includes the whole of the Chuoshui Creek alluvial fan west of the Sun Yat-sen Highway, and the subsidence is growing more serious.

The landslide problem is at least as damaging and widespread as that of flooding. When a heavy rain causes a landslide, the tremendous momentum of the water and stone can destroy bridge supports, roads, buildings and even fields under cultivation. A survey by the COA of the collapsed areas of watersheds where landslides tend to occur revealed that Taiwan has some 458 waterways which are prone to landslides. These waterways flow through 19 counties and major metropolitan areas as well as more than 1000 towns and villages. The areas facing the most serious landslide problems are in Hualien, Taitung and Nantou counties.

In fact, ever since Typhoon Herb struck the island several years ago, the western part of the island's problems with land subsidence, poor drainage and landslides have been obvious. When Typhoon Winnie battered the island last year, even more flooding occurred. And this year, beginning with the spring monsoons in May, the frequency of landslides and flooding has been increasing. In the midst of this situation, the central government and the provincial government have been bickering about whether to treat the symptoms first, or the disease. After June's floods, Provincial Governor James Soong faced the anger of the populace when he made a tour of areas swamped by the high waters. In a rare display, Soong was sharply critical of the central government's efforts to phase out the provincial government and its freezing of the provincial government's budget, actions which he said had left the provincial government unable to fully execute its mandate to manage water conservancy. Soong stated that 30% of the water management projects for Taiwan's major rivers had not been started and that only 30% of local drainage problems had been resolved. He pointed out that the provincial government had put forward an NT$16-billion proposal to resolve the drainage problems of Yunlin, Changhua and Chia-yi counties, but the central government had rejected it. In his remarks, Soong called for the central government to stop neglecting the importance of flood control projects.

The Cabinet responded by stating that Governor Soong's criticisms were unreasonable and not in accord with the reality of the situation. The central government has, over the last five years, provided the provincial government with in excess of NT$49 billion in direct assistance to support water conservancy measures, but to no effect. Liu San-chi, deputy director general of the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, says that the reason the provincial government's plan was rejected was that it did not first address the subsidence problem. In four years, Yunlin, Chia-yi and Changhua would again be covered in water and NT$10 billion would have been flushed down the toilet. Liu feels that the provincial government's plan addresses only the surface of the problem without getting at the root. The provincial government, however, says that you can't just leave the people of these flooded areas to soak in the floodwaters. It was for this reason that it proposed first dealing with the immediate problem before addressing the root.

In principle, the central government sets water conservancy policy, while the provincial government plans and implements projects. But with the provincial government being dismantled and very little communication between it and the central government, neither side knows how to go forward with water conservancy management.

Two of the reasons Taiwan has experienced flooding for several years running are insufficient government regulation of land development and a misguided perception among the public of what constitutes appropriate land use. Premier Siew says that in the future, the root of the problem of land subsidence and related flooding will be addressed through a comprehensive land-use plan. Huang Nan-yuan, director general of the MOI's Construction and Planning Administration, says that his administration will use changes in zoning to deal with the problem. In the future, lands being used for aquaculture in the western part of the island which are experiencing subsidence will be redesignated as recreational areas. This rezoning will raise property values, which will, in turn, encourage those who own the land to move into other industries, thus bringing an end to the problem of over-extraction of groundwater and the consequent subsidence of the land. And Professor Lin Mei-lin of National Taiwan University's civil engineering department has a solution for the landslide problem. She recommends that the government complete the MOI's survey of river valleys prone to landslides as quickly as possible, that it place strict limits on the amount of residential land within such areas and that it create an accurate landslide warning system. She feels that only in this way can we limit the damage caused by landslides.

Solving these recurrent problems is largely a matter of resolving problems with the implementation of government policy and the public's attitude towards land development. While worrying about the occurrence of such disasters, we should remember that appropriate land development is the only way to deal with both the symptoms and the root cause of this water-borne disease.

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After the storms, Lunar World, a tourist spot in Kaohsiung's Tienliao Township, looked more like a "water world." The flooding caused heavy losses for local residents and businesses. (photo by Luo Chi-wen)