Chiayi Dongshi Slash Rural Life: Friendly Connections and Local Innovation in Tune with the Environment

Text / Zhuang Xiaoping

Located along the coastal area of Chiayi and Tainan, Dongshi Township is now known for its aquaculture industry and is a major domestic supplier of oysters. In fact, from the 50th to the 70th years of the Republic of China era (1961-1981), Dongshi Township was still an important production area for white asparagus for export. The planting area once reached 1,500 hectares, and the asparagus collection stations set up in villages by the farmers' association numbered as many as 21. White asparagus almost became the economic pillar of many households in Dongshi Township. The prosperity at that time even allowed the Dongshi Township Farmers' Association to build a new office building, and the farmers' association building therefore had the alternative name "Asparagus Building."

Unfortunately, in the late 1970s, domestic asparagus processing plants left because they could not withstand rising labor costs, which in turn caused Dongshi Township's asparagus planting industry to shrink, and the employed population shifted into manufacturing and aquaculture. A development crisis appeared after only a brief period of prosperity. After Typhoon Wayne struck in the 75th year of the Republic of China era (1986), some coastal settlements began to flood frequently, and together with the pull of development in neighboring townships, Dongshi Township's population continued to outflow. In the 78th year of the Republic of China era (1989), Dongshi Township still had a population of 33,549, but in the 108th year of the Republic of China era (2019) only 24,529 remained, a loss of nearly 30%, turning it into the lonely small town described in singer Wu Bai's song: "The road is so wide but there is no one; under the streetlights there is no one; the barbershop has no one; at the temple entrance there is no one."

Natural Disasters Plus Human-Made Problems: Good Farmland Sometimes Becomes a Land of Rivers and Lakes

Of the former good farmland, some that was watched over became fish ponds, while some uncared-for wasteland became saline-alkali land because of land subsidence and seawater intrusion. Today, Dongshi Township's onshore aquaculture fish pond area alone reaches 2,000 hectares, wider than the white asparagus planting area during its heyday.

The crisis brought by land subsidence is not only restricted industrial development, but also the danger to life and property of flooding whenever there is heavy rain. During Typhoon Morakot in the 98th year of the Republic of China era (2009) and the 823 Flood Disaster in the 108th year of the Republic of China era (2019), torrential rain poured into central and southern Taiwan. Dongshi Township is located downstream of the Puzi River, and coastal settlements such as Zhangtan Village and Wenzai Village became a land of rivers and lakes because drainage could not keep up and high tide arrived at the same time. Wu Shufang, secretary-general of the Chiayi County Rural Sustainable Development Association, who has long promoted community building work, observed that the cause of the disasters was not only instantaneous heavy rainfall, but also human-made problems.

Land Subsidence Becomes a Prison: Everyone Builds Embankments for Self-Protection

The Hebaoyu Drainage Channel, located on the south side of the Puzi River, passes through land-subsidence settlements such as Zhangtan Village in Dongshi Township. Sometimes when torrential rain comes, upstream water rushes to drain downstream, but the water is trapped inside the settlements by Provincial Highway 17, whose roadbed is higher than the settlements, and cannot get out. Although local governments frequently add detention ponds and pumps to improve flooding conditions, residents have simply been too frightened by flooding, and many choose to help themselves. Residents use sandbags to build embankments between villages, raise roadbeds, or heighten the protective railings of ditches, and even close village drainage gates to avoid water flooding into settlements.

Over the long term, the lack of overall spatial planning has reduced the water-storage area of the entire district. Wu Shufang said that now either there is no flooding, or once it floods it is 100 cm deep, and she fears that one day the embankments will not withstand the water pressure and collapse. "If one day the embankment breaks, if the water level is just normally low and everything floods, then it is actually not too bad; but if all this water is held at such a high level, once the embankment breaches, no one will be able to escape either, so let's just see whose family's ancestors are more efficacious!"

Walking through Wenzai Village, one can deeply feel the all-people embankment-building movement Wu Shufang spoke of. For example, the middle of the road suddenly rises, so after walking a bit you accidentally look down at residents' gardens, and after walking a bit more the roadbed returns to normal, with your line of sight level with residents' courtyard walls. Locals jokingly say that driving within the settlement is like riding a roller coaster, rising and falling.

To prevent water from flooding into their homes, besides raising road surfaces as embankments, villagers can also be seen with plastic rafts along many household walls; even important household appliances are placed directly on small rafts, so that if water floods into the home, the items rise with the water level, reducing the hard work of elderly people frequently lifting items higher.