tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post7657512288895434328..comments2023-10-22T18:25:39.688+08:00Comments on The View from Taiwan: Gaoping Great Lakes ControversyMichael Turtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17974403961870976346noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-63424804568705789482012-11-03T16:40:51.069+08:002012-11-03T16:40:51.069+08:00Les,
It might also be the case that someone has t...Les,<br /><br />It might also be the case that someone has their eye on buying up some of the surrounding land to build upmarket houses and apartments; having a series of "great lakes" to look out on as scenery might increase their value. But I don't really know - the location may be just a bit too far out in the sticks.<br /><br />Yesterday, I went down there to have a look around and while I was at the water resources office, I was surprised to discover that the Kaoping lakes project is only one of <i>four</i> new reservoirs planned for south Taiwan, along with three new diversion channels and lots of new flood-check weirs. If each of these new projects is eventually built, then the future increase in potential water supply to Kaohsiung city will be considerable.Mike Faganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08745281285031316740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-48813602350919701492012-11-02T22:20:47.057+08:002012-11-02T22:20:47.057+08:00Potatoes? We already have sweet potatoes - still n...Potatoes? We already have sweet potatoes - still not widely accepted because of the, ahem, gas-producing side-effects. The same goes for white potatoes. Plus, you'll need cultivars with high levels of heat-tolerance and disease resistance in order to farm them in Kaohsiung area.<br /><br />The future is 旱稻, to be re-introduced since the native species have long been replaced by the water-hungry Japanese import, 蓬萊米.<br /><br />Shepard's pie with rice cake may work out well.EyeDochttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00406602265159523372noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-87485364311773096892012-11-02T11:44:19.444+08:002012-11-02T11:44:19.444+08:00As I recall, the project was first touted by a DPP...As I recall, the project was first touted by a DPP figure, just don't remember now who it was. The idea was basically that selling the rights to extract the gravel would get the pits dug for free, and leave money in the bank for all the related infrastructure. The idea was that there would be no need for funds from the taxpayer.<br /><br />No doubt DPP also has it's dirty relationship with the gravel trade, but at least in this instance money would not be flowing direct from the treasury into the pockets of this public enemy.lesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-14282871807995978732012-11-01T18:32:51.147+08:002012-11-01T18:32:51.147+08:00With the switch to potatos, that'll be half of...With the switch to potatos, that'll be half of the Taiwanese diet abolished at a stroke. The future is British; the future is shepherd's pie.Mike Faganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08745281285031316740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-39959026926176570962012-11-01T16:44:01.479+08:002012-11-01T16:44:01.479+08:00 In the long-term, rice has to be moved away from,... In the long-term, rice has to be moved away from, it releases fantastic amounts of methane and is water-greedy. Lots of changes in water behavior will have to be made....Michael Turtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17974403961870976346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-58412088751522240172012-11-01T16:16:15.345+08:002012-11-01T16:16:15.345+08:00You vill change your behaviaar, or... you vill be ...You vill change your behaviaar, or... you vill be shot!<br /><br /> ***<br /><br />To be fair, increases in price and increases in supply are not mutually exclusive; the government could allow both (or neither). But whilst a price increase might induce people to use less water whilst showering at home, a price increase for the rice farmers and for certain water intensive industries isn't going to go down well as many (not all) of these people already apply good water conservation measures (e.g. farmers keeping their own mini-reservoirs, large factories already trying to cut down on their major water use and recycle their minor water use). And the combined size of the five reservoirs, at 65 million m3 puts it at the high end of the lower capacity range, so my earlier comment about not making much difference to the supply problem is wrong. It would make a difference (assuming good design).<br /><br />Over the long term, the correct policy might be to neither increase prices, nor supply; as the water shortages begin to worsen, the market incentives for better water filtration and recycling tech will presumably expand naturally. The tech already exists in embryonic form, it's just a question of paying for the costs of scaling up. It's somewhat similar to the problem the solar pv industry has.Mike Faganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08745281285031316740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-30400429868074113482012-11-01T09:06:43.656+08:002012-11-01T09:06:43.656+08:00Yes, Tsengwen is already silting up and it overflo...Yes, Tsengwen is already silting up and it overflows in the summer. <br /><br />The really correct policy is not to build more reservoirs but to change the price of water to reflect its actual costs. People would then use less. Michael Turtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17974403961870976346noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-54364812161443411472012-11-01T02:27:34.326+08:002012-11-01T02:27:34.326+08:00My mistake - not 6,500 cubic meters. 65 million cu...My mistake - not 6,500 cubic meters. 65 million cubic meters! It's well after 2am.Mike Faganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08745281285031316740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10698887.post-18343368114993211602012-11-01T02:06:49.684+08:002012-11-01T02:06:49.684+08:00"More need not be said...."
Actually, I...<i>"More need not be said...."</i><br /><br />Actually, I would have thought the most damning aspect of the project is that the envisaged storage capacity for all five "lakes" taken together is a mere 6,500 cubic meters - which is just over a fifth that of Renyitan reservoir in Chiayi (almost 30,000 IIRC). For comparison, Tseng-wen reservoir has a designed capacity of nearly 700 million cubic meters. So in the scale of Kaohsiung's projected water conservation difficulties, this project would barely make any difference anyway.<br /><br />The idea of siting reservoirs "off-source" in comparatively downstream locations isn't necessarily a bad idea per se (Renyitan is a good example of this done well) because it allows for better defenses against flooding and over-sedimentation, however, as I see it the major technical problem to building a reservoir in Kaohsiung is choosing a good location. The obvious sites are all along highway 20, which follows the course of the Kaoping's northernmost tributary; were a trough style reservoir (e.g. like Nanhua or Shihmen) to be built somewhere along this axis, the local aboriginal villages in Baoli and Taoyuan would effectively be cut off from the outside world. And then there are the problems with building massive, trough style reservoirs anyway in addition to having to locate one so far upstream that so much more additional expense would be incurred in the way of maintenance.<br /><br />So if a new reservoir is going to be built in Kaohsiung at some point, then it will almost certainly have to be in a location similar to this one. The channel from Nanhua reservoir to the Kaoping river was completed years ago - the flush point is just across the river from pond E. So unless they build another underground diversion channel (this time from Tseng-wen all the way to the Kaoping) then there is no way they can get any more water out of Tainan's reservoirs and into Kaohsiung. So it's either this "Little Ponds" project, or nothing I would imagine.Mike Faganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08745281285031316740noreply@blogger.com