Chinese Academy rushes to buy agricultural water, Zhuoshui River drained dry, Changhua local factions become biggest winners

Text by Lin Ying-chiu

Early in the morning on May 10, Wu Yin-ning, who serves as chief secretary at the Xizhou Township Office in Changhua County, drove her small car to work as usual. But in the end she did not enter the township office, because an excavator slowly trundled toward the "Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 water diversion project" beside the Laozibei Canal, slicing through the quiet peace of the rural morning. She immediately pulled her car in front of the excavator and sat alone in the middle of the farm road to block it, refusing to let the excavator dig and defending her home.

Work suspended, yet the contractor launches a surprise attack

The image of Wu Yin-ning facing off alone against the excavator was so shocking that passing villagers spread the word to one another.

Before long, many farmers, barefoot and wearing bamboo hats, put down their work and came to show their support. Wu Yin-ning's father, the poet Wu Sheng, also sat on the scorching asphalt, and Xizhou Township chief Huang Sheng-lu led the protest. As more and more people gathered, the more than twenty police officers were kept busy too: some filmed to gather evidence, some moved among the crowd to communicate, and some held up signs warning the villagers that they were violating the Assembly and Parade Act.

Only a few days earlier, New Taipei City legislator Lin Shu-fen had just helped coordinate among the National Science Council, the Central Taiwan Science Park Administration, the Changhua Irrigation Association and other agencies, getting this project, whose policy goals had already changed and which locals still had doubts about, to suspend construction first. Ironically, the Kuomintang legislator elected locally, Cheng Ju-fen, and her son Hsieh Tien-lin, who serves as county council speaker, played no role at all. And the contractor's excavator actually took advantage of everyone going to Taipei to attend a public hearing to launch a "surprise attack," leaving the villagers furious.

Compared with the large-scale marches and demonstrations in Taipei, this rural protest by a few dozen people was a small thing against a big one, but they were on average over sixty years old and highly united: for the sake of this lifeline of living water that can support families, fields, children and grandchildren, they would never compromise, and never let the Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 Erlin Park seize their water. At eleven o'clock, the police held up their warning signs for the second time, and the villagers' anger rose along with the temperature of the asphalt under the blazing sun until they could no longer hold it in; provoked by the police's sign-holding, they erupted.

"No water means no life, we can't live!" "This bandit government is ruining the farmers' land!" "They can't even catch vote-buying, they only intimidate the people, arresting kind common folk!" "I dare say it too, the chief culprits are the county magistrate, the council speaker, the legislator and the irrigation association chairman!" "My son is a police officer in Taipei too, and you're eating the rice we grow..." A crowd of grandpas and grandmas jabbered and cursed, one after another, and some even ran up in front of the police to point at their noses and scold them.

Grabbing water and land: a site selection full of controversy

Wu Sheng grew agitated too. Seeing the police and villagers in a standoff, with the people enduring the scorching sun to guard the water source and refusing to leave, he stepped to the very front and called out to the senior police officers: "Official posts are temporary, but heavenly principles are permanent. You say we are holding an illegal assembly? Is it legal for them to come and dig without applying? Tell them to take their machinery and excavators back, and the farmers will thank you."

The fiery emotions of the farmers on site eased a little after Kang Yuan, a Changhua cultural and historical worker, led them in singing the "Song for Praying for Rain." Beside them, the contractor's representative, Hsieh Wu-hsiang, head of the Weimeng construction site, was frantic with anxiety, because it now looked impossible to start work, yet under the contract this water diversion project had to be completed by the end of the year, and only a quarter of it had been done so far; every day without work meant a loss of 2 million.

If it really were for developing the economy and revitalizing the countryside, why would this Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 water diversion project drive the people of Xizhou Township so crazy?

Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 was a major campaign promise of Changhua County magistrate Cho Po-yuan, and "I've moved the science park to Changhua!" became his resounding election slogan. But choosing Erlin as the park site was quite controversial, because first it required relocating the century-old settlement "Xiangsi Liao," and second there was a water shortage, while Changhua also suffers severe land subsidence, so scenes of protest over "grabbing land" and "grabbing water" played out again and again, filling the Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 Erlin Park with farmers' curses and resentment.

The public pays the bill: a loss of 2.2 billion a year

The dispute over grabbing water was especially serious. Because Changhua has problems with coastal erosion and with agriculture, fishing and industry secretly pumping groundwater, and because after the completion of the Jiji Weir on the Zhuoshui River there had already been a drought lasting more than half a year, agricultural water was tight on every front. The farmers of Xizhou Township, who rely on the Laozibei Canal for irrigation, under the Changhua Irrigation Association's "stop four (days), supply six (days)" policy, had already been forced in the dry season to dig wells and pump groundwater for irrigation. Now this water diversion project was being built right up against the Laozibei Canal, about to compete with them for the water of the Zhuoshui River, which made the people of Xizhou Township cry out in disbelief.

Changhua is an important granary of Taiwan, and under the Water Act "agricultural water use takes priority over industrial water use." But on January 5, 2009, the Central Taiwan Science Park Administration signed a "contract for the allocation of agricultural water" with the irrigation association and the water company, clearly stating that it would cause farmland to be left fallow, converted to other crops or abandoned, and therefore bought water from the Changhua Irrigation Association at 3.3 yuan per ton as compensation, paid all the expenses of the water diversion project and the subsequent operation and management costs, and then sold it to the water company at 1.19 yuan per ton to supply water to the Central Taiwan Science Park Erlin Park.

Wu Yin-ning, who had long followed the issue of the science park grabbing water, carefully calculated the cost of the science park buying agricultural water according to the contract, and it turned out to be as high as 92.5 yuan per ton. "This is a huge benefit; on average the science park loses 2.2 billion yuan of the people's tax money every year, and the whole public pays the bill!"

Selling off agricultural water to reap huge windfall profits

This expensive cost of buying agricultural water includes: the science park spent 2.3 billion yuan to build the water diversion project for the irrigation association, then buys water from the irrigation association at 3.3 yuan per ton, and pays the irrigation association an annual operation and management fee of 62.62 million yuan; in addition, the science park spent 1.454 billion yuan to build a water purification plant and so on for the water company. Calculating on the basis of a daily diverted volume of 66,500 tons and use for only 640 days, the cost per ton of water comes to 92.5 yuan.

The water company got for nothing the "big gift" of a purification plant built by the science park at a cost of 1.454 billion yuan, and it also buys water from the science park at 1.19 yuan per ton and then sells it to the firms in the Central Taiwan Science Park Erlin Park at 7.35 to 12.07 yuan per ton; from the price difference alone, it gains nearly 200 million yuan in profit every year for nothing. And the irrigation association also got this free "water channel" of the science park's water diversion project; after the science park's period of use expires, the irrigation association can still expand its use and continue selling agricultural water for profit.

In addition, the science park also allocated a budget to ask the irrigation association to operate and manage the dredging, scooping out the fertile soil of the Zhuoshui River that is "a bit sticky, yet not too sticky," which can then be resold at a high price as horticultural soil.

Local people roughly estimated that from selling agricultural water, collecting management fees and selling soil alone, the irrigation association could obtain windfall profits of about 300 million yuan a year for nothing.

The science park "buys high and sells low," and under the current plan loses more than 2 billion yuan every year. "This is not something any normal company or normal person would do, but the government just wastes the people's tax money like this!" local people said.

A useless project that benefits local factions

At present, because AU Optronics decided to withdraw from the Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 Erlin Park, and with environmental review, demolition and water-grabbing protests continuing without end, of the entire park of more than 600 hectares only one company, "Ai Min Wei Cai," has moved in. Premier Chen Chun has instructed the National Science Council to review the matter and propose an adjustment plan within two months.

Wu Sheng believes that since the planned goals of Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 are already going to be adjusted and changed, the science park's water diversion project has become a completely useless project, yet the science park, the irrigation association and the contractor insist on a sneak attack and forcing it through. "This only benefits local factions and satisfies the needs of political foot soldiers!" He said painfully and self-reproachfully that many of the legislators, council members, police officers, irrigation association cadres and contractors were students he had taught. "I really ought to slap myself!"

Yang Wen-ke, director-general of the Central Taiwan Science Park Administration, said that only the Central Taiwan Science Park Phase 4 Erlin Park still has a complete site left in all of Taiwan, and that for the sake of economic development considerations, the Erlin Park would only undergo industrial adjustment, switching to developing low-energy-consumption industries, but no matter what industry it is, water is still needed, so the science park's water supply plan will not change.

The people of Xizhou Township oppose this Central Taiwan Science Park water diversion project, because it is tantamount to squeezing dry the last drop of water from the Zhuoshui River, endangering the farmland and the lifeline of survival of most people, while only a tiny handful would benefit. It seems this "water war" still has a long way to go!

(This article was published concurrently in "The Journalist" issue 1315)