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Chaotic waterway management: not treating drainage is tantamount to forcing farmers to fallow their land

General News By Emily Carter 0 views

Autumn Typhoon Meranti struck, and its fierce winds and torrential rain not only brought down fruit trees such as wax apple (bell fruit), jujube, and banana, but also blew the problem of farmland drainage into the open. Rice farmer Hsieh Ming-chien in Yuli, Hualien, recently uploaded footage of the damage

An on-the-ground investigation by News&Market found that from agricultural irrigation and drainage channels to rivers, basin management falls under different agencies: the Forestry Bureau, the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, the Water Resources Agency, and county and city governments. Some irrigation channels are managed by the Irrigation Association and some are not; some regional streams fall under township offices, while others are managed by county and city governments. Farmers are already dizzy just rushing around trying to figure out whom to report to, and for the farmland that flooded this time, no responsible agency could even be found.

As for irrigation and drainage channels, of Taiwan's total farmland area of 850,000 hectares, only 380,000 hectares of irrigation and drainage channels fall under the jurisdiction of the Irrigation Association; the remaining area is either classified as outside irrigation districts or consists of dry land and hillside land. In response, Council of Agriculture Deputy Minister Chen Chi-chung admitted that water channels outside irrigation districts used to be the responsibility of the Water Resources Agency, but since these are all farmland after all, they will no longer be pushed onto the Water Resources Agency in the future. The Council of Agriculture will inventory the condition of farmland water channels outside irrigation districts and gradually bring them back under unified management by the Irrigation Association.

One River Cut Into Multiple Agencies: How to Manage in Sync?

However, Kao Ming Pa-sang, who once served as section chief of the agriculture section of Yuli Township Office, raised a deeper concern. He said that one river from top to bottom has too many agencies with authority: the Forestry Bureau, the Soil and Water Conservation Bureau, the Water Resources Agency, and county and city governments; irrigation channels also involve the Irrigation Association; some regional streams fall under township offices, while others are managed by county and city governments. Every time a problem arises, just the site inspection and clarifying who has authority takes up a great deal of time. Does managing one river really have to be cut up among so many agencies?

Kao Ming Pa-sang believes that the nation's water affairs authorities should also be reviewed together to consolidate into one governance agency, so that before the annual flood-control period and after typhoons there can be dedicated personnel to patrol, and only then will the governance of a single water area be in sync.

Water Area Governance Funds Reduced to Legislators' Patronage Overriding Professional Expertise and National Land Planning

In addition, local insiders mentioned that many agencies reserve public works funds for elected representatives, so that when the public has urgent needs for river or ditch governance, it can be used accordingly. Now, however, these public works funds have devolved into a tool for patronage. When budgets are reviewed there is no professional assessment, resulting in one river being dredged in some sections and not in others, which is extremely chaotic.

Wen Chung-liang, a director of the Meinong Rural Field Study Association who has long observed farmland irrigation channels, said that the government reserving part of the budget for elected representatives to help the public solve drainage problems is a normal part of a democratic society, but the distribution of interests creates competition. Every legislator needs a "quota," and in the end it becomes a matter of doing things not because there is a need, but in order to use up the "quota."

Wen Chung-liang pointed out that various places have begun to show some absurd practices, building projects for the sake of projects. Even more absurd is that some people, in order to use up the budget, deliberately destroyed stone-lined river channels built during the Japanese colonial period and then repaired them. Local politics has overridden professional expertise and national land management planning. How the matching funds for public works across agencies have been reviewed over the long term requires a comprehensive review.