Premier Lin Chuan visited Yunlin County today to inspect construction on a second raw water pipeline for the Hushan Reservoir, a project that falls under the water environment component of the government's Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program.
The Hushan Reservoir itself was an important undertaking because it was integrated into the natural environment, the premier said. Aside from rehabilitating local ecosystems and benefiting environmental conservation efforts, the reservoir is expected to reduce the amount of groundwater drawn from the Yunlin area, alleviating water problems for farmers, homes and businesses.
On the whole, the government's objectives for building hydraulic infrastructure are to prevent disasters, provide clean drinking water, protect the natural ecology and create a good water environment. And when the special budget for forward-looking infrastructure projects is approved, the premier hopes each of these objectives will come to fruition.
The Hushan Reservoir is proof that development activities can coexist prosperously with environmental conservation, Premier Lin continued. He said he hopes all future development projects in Taiwan, including Changhua's offshore wind farms, will be able to maintain this kind of balance with environmental considerations. He also commended the reservoir's use of sedimentation as a means of removing impurities from the water, an excellent and sustainable method that produces no siltation.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said plans for the Hushan Reservoir began in 1980, and construction kicked off in 2006 before the facility became operational in 2016. The ministry is gradually filling the reservoir in three stages, and has presently raised water levels to the second-stage target (effective water storage capacity of 11.05 million metric tons). Crews are working to achieve the maximum water capacity of 50.85 million metric tons before the 2018 flood season so that Hushan can fulfill all of its intended functions as a reliable provider of quality water for local residents.
The second raw water pipeline will provide Hushan with another auxiliary water intake/outlet system. This pipeline is capable of boosting the reservoir's intake/outlet capacity by up to 860,000 million metric tons daily, allowing it to operate more sustainably, provide reliable water supplies, and mitigate siltation and flooding, the ministry said.