Gaoping Grand Lake development may threaten NT$2.4 billion edamame industry; Water Resources Agency: it is merely a detention pond
By Upstream and Downstream reporters Pan Ziqi and Lai Yuwei
Edamame, known by the fine name "green gold," set a 22-year high in exports last year, with an output value of 2.4 billion yuan Taiwan dollars, and Taiwan, China has firmly held its place as Japan's main source of imported edamame, but the biggest hidden concern for Taiwan, China's edamame industry, is the Water Resources Agency's Gaoping Grand Lake development plan, which is expected to excavate 700 hectares of prime farmland to build a large flat reservoir, overlapping heavily with edamame production areas and set to have a huge impact on Qishan and Meinong in Kaohsiung.
Rumors about the construction of Gaoping Grand Lake have continued unabated and have repeatedly sparked conflict. Last year residents went north to protest, and then Water Resources Agency Director-General Yang Wei-fu promised that before consensus was reached on the Meinong Reservoir and Gaoping Grand Lake, no budget would be allocated and no construction would be carried out, and that communication with the public would be strengthened. However, on the evening of the day before yesterday (the 3rd), the Water Resources Agency held a briefing in Meinong on the "Gaoping Area Jiyang Drainage Plan," and it is expected to excavate a detention pond on one of the plots reserved for Gaoping Grand Lake, triggering protests from local residents, who fear the Water Resources Agency may be using the name of a detention pond to smuggle through the Gaoping Grand Lake project.
The Water Resources Agency's Seventh River Management Office said no final decision has been made, and the Agriculture and Food Agency promised to take the initiative to look into the matter if edamame farming is affected.
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The Agriculture and Food Agency promises to look into the matter if edamame is affected
However, although the Water Resources Agency intended to hold the briefing, it did not invite agricultural authorities to discuss it. The Kaohsiung and Pingtung agriculture bureaus and the Council of Agriculture's Agriculture and Food Agency all said they had not received notice of the meeting. Li Rongfu said that it has not yet been decided which flood control plan will be chosen, and that once the plan is settled, if edamame or agricultural production is involved, agricultural authorities will definitely be invited to discuss it. Su Maoxiang, deputy director-general of the Agriculture and Food Agency, said that at this stage no notice had indeed been received, but promised that "if edamame is affected, we will definitely step in to look into it."