Pingtung's Erfeng Canal Makes Good Use of Underflow Water, Never Running Dry for Ninety Years

Recently Taiwan has faced a drought crisis, with water supplies sounding the alarm. Many reservoirs hold less than 60 percent of their capacity and have dried up to reveal their bottoms, and the Ministry of Economic Affairs has even resolved to halt irrigation on more than 41,000 hectares of first-season rice paddies next year, leaving these farmlands with no water available. But the Erfeng Canal in Laiyi, Pingtung, still has water flowing continuously even in the face of drought; in the ninety years since it was built, it has never once run dry, even during droughts, and the 3,000 hectares of the Linbian River irrigation area downstream do not have to face the problem of fallowing.

The Erfeng Canal was built ninety years ago by the Japanese hydraulic engineer Torii Shinpei, using an "underground reservoir" method to collect the underflow water beneath the riverbed, supplying 82,000 tons of water per day to the downstream area, without interruption for ninety years. Ding Che-shih, a professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, has long studied groundwater and believes that Taiwan should readjust its water resource policy and make effective use of groundwater resources.

Collecting the underflow water beneath the riverbed, supplying more water per day than Baihe Reservoir