Farmers take up hoes and go to the streets to fight over water

. Xizhou farmers painted the streets, expressing their feelings in a different way and hoping to draw more attention

Xizhou, the Land of Turbid Water

Xizhou is called by this name because it was originally a sandbar of the Zhuoshui River, a plain gradually formed by siltation.

The first time I went to Xizhou in Changhua was last July, when I joined the Summer Cultivation field survey camp. Although I joined the production-and-marketing group's field survey midway simply because I was curious about the hands-on course, I was still very glad to have this opportunity to visit several farm households on site and feel the farmers' simple warmth.

At one stop, we visited Uncle Baoyuan's guava orchard. On a summer afternoon, the trainees, unafraid of the heat, stood in the orchard, attentively listening to Uncle Baoyuan explain how he cares for guavas and what "tricks" to watch out for. As he spoke, Uncle Baoyuan sighed a little and said that the Xizhou guavas irrigated by the Zhuoshui River are actually no worse in quality than the famous Yanchao guavas, and their output ranks sixth largest in Taiwan, China; it was just that with the local farmers' association paying no attention and making no effort to market them, their reputation had been more or less affected.

. Uncle Baoyuan standing in the guava orchard.

But like other farmers along the Zhuoshui River, Uncle Baoyuan did not complain much; he just quietly farmed. Because they believe that as long as they work hard to protect this fertile land fed to them by the Zhuoshui River, it will bring a season of harvest.

Central Taiwan Science Park Seizes Farm Water, Fertile Fields Left with None to Farm

Now shift the scene to the streets of Taipei last summer. The uncles and older men who, when we met them in the countryside, always wore kind and somewhat shy smiles now had eyes full of anger. This was already countless times they had come up to Taipei to protest.

Because of the Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 development project, the Changhua Farmland Irrigation Association arbitrarily diverted the Cihtzihpi Canal, which runs through southern Changhua, for industrial use, and was about to begin water-diversion and pipe-laying work in Dazhuang Village, Xizhou Township. The 24-kilometer-long pipeline was about to drain completely the water source on which farmers depended for their livelihood.

The Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 park, located in Erlin, Changhua, has been mired in controversy throughout its development: it not only forcibly expropriated the land of Xiangsihliao residents, its wastewater discharge threatened to pollute the coast, and it also grabbed agricultural water, triggering protests by local farmers and fishermen.

The new chairman of the National Science CouncilZhu Jingyi said the day before yesterday (3/13)that Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 should be re-evaluated and development suspended. However, the water-diversion project that began construction on 2/23 has still not stopped to this day, and officials have given no answer as to how long it can remain halted. Therefore, at 10 a.m. on March 15, farmers along the Cihtzihpi Canal in southern Changhua will once again protest on Ketagalan Boulevard against this unfair and unjust water-grabbing project, demanding that it be stopped immediately.

Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 is planned to receive 66,500 tons of water per day in the medium term (2012-2015) from the Cihtzihpi Canal, and long-term water supply after 2016 from the Dadu Weir in Taichung. The current controversies over the water-diversion project are as follows:

1. Farmers did not know that the Cihtzihpi Canal had been adopted as the medium-term water source; it was a unilateral decision by the Changhua Farmland Irrigation Association, which sold the water to the science park at the low price of only 3.3 yuan per unit (one unit of water is one metric ton of water, and the irrigation association can thus take in 200,000 yuan per day).

2. A "temporary" water-diversion project actually costs 2.1 billion, and will not be completed until 2014; after completion it can only be used for 2 years, a complete waste of the people's tax money.

3. The Water Resources Agency has announced that the Dadu Weir plan is suspended, meaning that Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 currently has no long-term water source supply, and no one can guarantee that after 2016, Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 will not continue to grab the Cihtzihpi Canal's farm water.

Members of the Anti-Central Taiwan Science Park Water-Grabbing Self-Rescue Association went up to Taipei last July to demand that the Environmental Protection Administration conduct an environmental impact assessment, but the EPA ruled that no EIA was required on the grounds that the amount of water drawn did not meet the threshold under the Environmental Impact Assessment Act. Now farmers can only seek relief on their own, hoping that through administrative litigation they can return the canal water to the farmland.

However, on the grounds that the project had already been contracted out, the irrigation association began construction on February 23 this year, and some sections have already had pipes laid.

. Schematic diagram of the Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 water-diversion project

Now that the new chairman of the National Science Council, Zhu Jingyi, has said that the Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 park needs to be reconsidered, the Anti-Central Taiwan Science Park Water-Grabbing Self-Rescue Association will once again go up to Taipei to protest, demanding that before the controversy is resolved, the water-grabbing project be stopped immediately, so that the rice seedlings just planted in spring can have enough water to grow strong. We also ask all partners to come and lend their support, demanding that the water be returned to the farmers.

Time: 3/15 (Thu) 10:00 a.m.
Location: Ketagalan Boulevard  in front of Taipei Guest House
Demands:
1. Before a long-term water source is confirmed, Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 and its water-grabbing project must be completely stopped
2. Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 must be immediately re-evaluated

• Construction site on March 12

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