In a severe drought with water shortages, why can't even the biggest pipes solve the problem?

Explanation:

#Even the biggest pipes cannot solve the water shortage problem

Peng Guizhi, chairperson of the Taiwan Clean Water Action Alliance, speaks:

In 2017, our alliance for drinking clean water launched an action: demanding that the government improve the water quality of the Touqian River. That year the government also announced it would accelerate the laying of pipes for the north-to-south water transfer, with completion expected by the end of 2020. However, just as the pipes were about to be completed, what arrived was a severe drought caused by climate change!

In order to respond to industrial and domestic water use, water extraction from the Touqian River increased greatly, reaching 500,000 tons per day. For the first time, Taoyuan, Hsinchu and Miaoli stopped irrigation during the heading stage; the Shimen Reservoir had no water to send south. Over the past six months, the north-to-south water transfer pipes sent an average of 30,000 tons of water, only one-tenth of the pipes' delivery capacity. Big pipes can only dispatch water; they cannot solve the problems of water quantity and water quality.

The government's contingency plan is to launch an emergency desalination plant project of 13,000 tons, and it has also floated the idea of building three reservoirs and raising dam heights, in an attempt to ease the water situation.

We call for this: in the face of droughts caused by climate change, the government should take a long-term view, manage precious water resources from the source, use them multiple times, and formulate long-term solutions, rather than desperately seeking volume while neglecting the fundamentals!

#Consider water quantity as well as water quality #Establishing river basin committees brooks no delay

Wu Bishuang, chief executive of the Homemakers United Foundation Environmental Protection Foundation, speaks:

In a severe drought, not a single drop should be wasted. The alliance demands that the government consider water quantity as well as water quality: taking Greater Hsinchu as an example, pollution sources in the middle and upper reaches of the Touqian River should be remediated, polluting factories should be relocated or connected to sewer systems as soon as possible, and household sewage should also be connected to sewer systems at an accelerated pace, to avoid letting people in the middle and lower reaches drink a "super thick soup"!

In addition, each central government-managed river should establish a cross-jurisdictional governance committee to comprehensively manage water resource use patterns, maintain river water quality, ecological conservation, and water dispatch mechanisms, and so on.

For water resources, both increasing supply and reducing demand are needed. The state should promote long-term water resource policies to respond to climate change:

#Reservoirs cannot buy more water

Wang Yuhuang, chairperson of the Taiwan Ecological Society, speaks:

　 In the past, Taiwan used agriculture to support industry, but now it is sacrificing agriculture to feed a giant industrial beast. Whenever there is a water shortage, there are always reservoir advocates proposing reservoir-building policies. Taiwan's reservoir problem is poor soil and water conservation in the upper reaches, causing reservoir siltation. No matter how many more reservoirs (big basins) are built, they are just as useless when facing climate change and siltation.

In the face of water shortages, we should take stock from the beginning and formulate improvement plans. The Forward-looking Water Environment Construction Plan borrows heavily for river, regional drainage, coastal environment creation and improvement, and water resource development, but in reality it introduces more cement-based renovation projects for rivers, streams, and regional drainage. It does not truly improve water pollution or conserve water sources; instead, it massively destroys the natural hydrology and ecology of rivers and streams, running counter to the slogan of river restoration. Congress and the public should strictly supervise the budget execution of the second phase of the forward-looking water environment plan. It must be implemented in water quality improvement, stream and river restoration, and water source conservation, using nature-based solutions to respond to the impacts of extreme climate; at the same time, industrial water use must be strictly restricted from unrestrained grabbing of the priority rights of agricultural and domestic water use.

The Save Shuangxi Reservoir Self-Rescue Association states:

Taking river water to support water-scarce areas during the rainy season is no problem, but building reservoirs to retain nature's water is absolutely opposed! We hope every area can take good care of its own water quality and quantity, and not think of destroying nature to obtain water whenever there is a shortage.

Nian Liyu, director of the Taiwan Water Resources Conservation Alliance, speaks:

How do water resource ecology, quantity, and quality complement one another? If polluting factories along the Touqian River are not relocated or connected to sewer systems, improving the Touqian River's water quality will probably amount to no more than the government holding meetings to put on a show. With source management out of order, supplying according to demand becomes an empty slogan! Add to that the lack of total volume control, and the government dare not levy water consumption fees on large water users. If water resource management is not improved and integrated, no matter how many reservoirs are built, there still will not be enough water!

What we should worry about is that no matter how large a reservoir's storage capacity is, if the upper watershed has loose soil and is recklessly reclaimed and deforested, then no matter how many reservoirs there are, they will silt up with soil and rock like the Shimen and Baihe reservoirs, and in time the reservoirs will become soil reservoirs!

Raising dam heights is like adding illegal structures to a house, and will leave people downstream of the reservoir living in fear. If the illegal structure collapses, the consequences would be unimaginable. Recklessly calling for new reservoirs while being lax on industrial water use is truly not a progressive water source conservation policy.

Forest ecology, reclaimed water, artificial lakes, underflow water, and desalination plants - all backup water sources should be reviewed one by one, rather than suddenly stopping agricultural irrigation whenever drought hits and sacrificing farmers who maintain food security for the people.

#Make good use of water price adjustment strategies

Make good use of water price adjustment strategies, using price to control quantity and promote the development of the water-saving industry. Basic domestic water use below a certain number of units should not be affected, while the water price for industrial use should appropriately reflect the cost of water production. By using quantity to control price, promote the long-term development of the water-saving industry.

The Citizens of the Earth Foundation states:

In addition to increasing supply, the government should introduce water-saving policies, among which the most critical issue is "rationalizing water prices." In Taiwan, the development cost per unit of tap water (1 cubic meter) has reached as high as 20-30 yuan, but the water price is only between 7.5-11 yuan. In Tokyo, Japan, each unit of water reaches NT$50; Singapore has raised water prices by 30% for two consecutive years; Hong Kong, China, is at 24 yuan. Compared with these neighboring Asian countries and regions, Taiwan's water price is indeed very low. Low water prices make people's average daily water use high. Over the past decade, Taiwanese people's average daily water use has exceeded 270 liters, and it has been rising year by year. In the International Water Association's 2015 data, Taiwan was the world's second-largest user of tap water.

A reasonable water price should ensure that those who conserve water pay a cost-reflective water price, while those who use excessive amounts pay a higher or even punitive water price. For example, if the standard is an average daily water use of 200 liters per person (already slightly higher than Singapore's 165 liters), users below this level pay the cost price of 20 yuan per unit (one million cc), those using 200-300 liters have their water price raised to 30 yuan per unit; those using 300-500 liters have it raised further to 50 yuan per unit. In this way, water use will certainly be greatly reduced, and it will not increase the burden on most people.

Legislator Chen Jiaohua speaks:

Our country's water use structure is quite concentrated. Large industrial and commercial water users using more than 1,000 units per month account for only 0.12% in number, yet use 30 percent of tap water.

To make water-consuming users adopt proactive water conservation measures, the Legislative Yuan in 2016 passed a requirement that users using more than 1,000 units per month, including the petrochemical, paper, textile and electronics industries, be charged an additional 10%~3

However, the Ministry of Economic Affairs still has not levied it to this day, which appears to be administrative negligence. It should levy water consumption fees as soon as possible, guide industries to improve water-saving efficiency and diversify water source use, and solve the problem of water resource shortages under abnormal climate conditions.

#Industries in water-scarce areas should increase the proportion of reclaimed water use

In response to climate change, the state should assess the limited water resources and implement the "Reclaimed Water Resource Development Act."