Water and Yunlin

An expat band rocks a local charity gig.

Underneath its placid agricultural surface Yunlin County is heavily stressed, says Personal Water Footprint in Taiwan: A Case Study of Yunlin County by Yung-Jaan Lee, Chuan-Ming Tung, Piin-Rong Lee, and Shih-Chien Lin (Sustainability 2016, 8(11), 1112;).

In relation to Taiwan’s water resources and related issues, Yunlin County faces more water resource-related difficulties than any other county in Taiwan. Yunlin County is a very important county for agriculture. However, 13 out of 20 townships in this county are located on areas of land subsidence. Coastal townships cover an area of severe land subsidence that floods during every typhoon. Kouhu Township’s Cheng Long Wetland is naturally low-lying. Additionally, years of the over-pumping of underground water, and salt water intrusion caused by Typhoon Wayne and Typhoon Abby in 1986 and Typhoon Herb in 1996, led to the formation of an abandoned wetland. The impact of this wetland on the region’s industry has been substantial, because Yunlin County’s extraction of underground water—which has led to the improper use of water resources—is inseparable from the water usage habits of the residents.

This led the team to calculate the personal water footprint of individuals in Yunlin and compare them on a township by township basis....

After questionnaires were collected and the answered encoded, the answers were input into the water footprint calculator, and the mean (direct) everyday water use per capita, virtual (indirect) water use, and water footprint results were obtained (Table 1). The calculation of everyday water use (direct) was based mainly on answers from interviewees to questions about the amount of water they used in doing laundry, bathing, flushing the toilet, washing the car, and taking care of fish and plants. Virtual (indirect) water use is obtained from information about an individual’s type of diet and amount of food eaten, pets, and the “hidden” water used in other consumption. The water consumed by omnivorous people greatly exceeds that used by vegetarians, because the production of livestock and meat consumes more water.

On a township basis, they found...

The five townships with the highest daily mean water footprints per capita are Gukeng Township (5506.26 L/person), Linnei Township (5247.27 L/person), Taixi Township (5137.86 L/person), Dongshi Township (4967.56 L/person), and Kouhu Township (4759.00 L/person), most of which are located in mountainous and coastal areas. The daily water footprint per capita in Yunlin County is 4287.88 L.

It's not difficult to see why Douliu has a huge footprint -- it's an administrative center with high incomes rich in tertiary industries. Gukeng, though, shows why tourism is ecologically stressful -- the article specifically points out that its high water use is driven by tourism. This hidden cost of water use is one of the reasons Taiwan was losing money on group tourism from China. They note:

Gukeng Township is the township with the most tourism in Yunlin County. It is also the source of the county’s water. Therefore, its industries are mostly agriculture (primary industry) and arts, entertainment, and recreation services, accommodation, food and beverage industries, and support services (tertiary industry).

Surprisingly, individual water use in Mailiao, where the big naptha cracker is, was low. This was because most water in Mailiao goes for industry, not individual use, and the industrial complex has its own dedicated water supply. On the coast the problem is overpumping of groundwater, which has led to massive subsidence and other problems....
_______________________
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

Alishan Take Three

James checks his pics. Not a great day for pics; by the time we got up high, the rain and fog was rolling in. Moral of the story: you can never start too early in the mountains. Yet it was still a surpassingly lovely ride.

Another weekend, another ride. This time I avoided the growing horror of President Ma Ying-jeou's mind-numblingly stupid assault on Wang Jin-pyng by hiding in the mountains for a lovely two day ride over two of my favorite roads, the 169 up Alishan, and the 159A into Chiayi city, which is really the prettiest road on the island. Click on READ MORE to read more....

Blogger on Recovery

Biked 160 kms of Changhua, Taichung, and Yunlin today. Very groggy from too much sun right now. I'll be back on the blog tomorrow. In the meantime enjoy a few pictures.

Along one of the bike paths, the men's room has a bike stand

A garlic seller near the huge temple on 19.

Egrets atop pig sheds near the Dz Chiang Bridge on 19.

Heaven on earth: watermelon fields.

The big red bridge on 145 going into Siluo. Really great on a bike.

The big red bridge from the inside, always a fascinating view.
_______________________ 
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.

Tuesday Quickies.

Sorry, I'm busier than a nest of ants who've broken into a honey factory. Just want to mention a few items....

DPP politico Hsiao Bi-khim just broke the news on Facebook that three protesters protesting a rail line in Taoyuan were given a total of 21 years for their heinous use of freedom of expression. More on that tomorrow, I hope.

Harvard Prof blasts Taiwan academics. It's much worse than that; the system actively discriminates against interdisciplinary research, rewarding profs only for publications in what is designated as their field. It also downplays the importance of books and forces profs to attempt to publish in top journals. I could go on all day about how counterproductive the Taiwan system is.....but since its purpose is to accrue status to the university, not knowledge.....

Asia Times has a piece on the recent Open Letter to Ma Ying-jeou on the charges against Lee Teng-hui. The government's response this time has been quite different. As the article notes, last time they went on the offensive, saying some surpassingly stupid things in response. They also contacted many of the signatories privately. This time neither of those things is occurring. I think the government has hit upon the right move: ignore them and they'll go away. Only this time there were a lot more signatories than last time.

Taipei Times runs article headlined Jason Hu's disapproval rating tops 40%. If you read the text, his approval rating is over 50%. This smacks of spin. We're the good guys, TT, no need to indulge in that. Correctly note that Hu has majority approval.

Finally, this great commentary in the Taipei Times today highlights an important bit of history....

The reception given to the project at the originally planned location in the Lize (利澤) area of Yilan County’s Wujie Township (五結) was very different from what happened later in Mailiao. In December 1987, then-FPG chairman Wang Yung-ching (王永慶) took part in a televised debate with then-Yilan County commissioner Chen Ding-nan (陳定南).

Wang said that if Chen gave the go-ahead for the plant to be built in Yilan, it would be a highly ethical decision that would bring great benefits to the county. Chen, however, responded by saying that if he allowed the complex to be built in Yilan he would be blamed for generations to come for what he called a “criminal error.”

In view of the seven fires in one year at the plant in Yunlin, and the protests that have followed, one can well imagine how thankful Yilan residents must feel today about Chen’s decision not to let FPG build the plant in their county.

In the two decades since it was built, the sixth naptha cracker plant has not brought the promised prosperity to the area. Instead, it has brought the threat of cancer and other illnesses, as well as the menace of fires that can and have broken out at any time. However, over on the other side of the Jhuoshui River (濁水溪), in Changhua County’s Dacheng Township (大城), the government was until the beginning of this year still offering the same old lures of “jobs and prosperity” to try and persuade local residents to support the construction of an eighth naphtha cracker plant.

....imagine what Yilan would be like if that hopeless naptha cracker had been built there. Formosa Plastics appears to have reneged on its promises to Yunlin, if the county gov'ts claims are correct.
_______________________
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.

Riding the Stimulant District

Saturday it was time for my monthly Century (100 miles) ride. Drew suggested we ride down 3 in central Taiwan and ride 149 just to see what was there. The result was a rewarding ride through the tea, coffee, and betel nut district of south-central Taiwan.

We met up in southern Taichung, where the size and number of the political advertisements are growing geometrically as the election approaches. It looked like it might rain, but the rain never really materialized, and in the afternoon we even got some sun.

We hit 149 in a couple of hours.

Going south down a long river gorge, 149 is bordered on its west side by the sheer gravel and rock faces common in central Taiwan.

Such as this one, for example.

Great views throughout the trip.

Shortly after we entered 149 we ran across this old temple. It had been built in the Qing Dynasty, Drew told me later. He found some interesting tombs nearby from plains aboriginal soldiers who had died in WWII. More on his blog later, I hope.

Along the roadside stood tombs of plains aborigines. It was an interesting mix of religions.

We soon entered an area of low-altitude tea farms.

Like this one.

Tea plants.

The road began climbing, yielding enjoyable views over the river vally.

Tea farms lined the roadside.

In the distance, tea pickers at work.

The Man in Black explores a side road.

Plenty of little villages lined the road.

Drying tea leaves.

Taking a photo op break.

We stopped by some tea pickers close to the road.

Watching the foreigner with the camera.

"What if this thing goes off?" a friend captioned this photo.

Tea pickers at work.

A coffee plant.

Another photo op break.

The mountains were coated with haze and fog. Can't wait to ride this when it is clear.

A bend in the forest.

Tea farms tumbling down the terraces to the river.

Near the turn for 158 there is a suspension bridge just off the road.

From the suspension bridge.

Gone fishing.

We climbed on 158A through forest for a couple of kilometers, not a car in sight......

Before winding up in the tea farms again.

Near the top.

We rolled down 149A back to Douliuo, a wonderful ride which I took no pictures of because I was having too much fun, then it was lunch and back on 3 to Taichung.

Along the way Drew took me on a nifty little diversion along 141 and 152 to Mingjian where we picked up 3 again.

It is really a pretty little ride, well worth the couple of extra kilometers.

The Formosan macaque research center near Mingjian.

Alas, it was back to dull, betel-nut-girl-and-auto-repair Rte 3 in Mingjian. Both Drew and I consider missionary proselytization a great evil, and in Mingjian we ran into a couple of Mormon missionaries spreading their centralized authority worship and securing new income streams for their organization. The encounter with that peculiarly Mormon combination of smug colonialism and arrant ignorance left an ugly taste in our mouths, but soon afterward we fell in with a group of Taiwanese guys on mountain bikes. The switch from the loony authority-worshipers to a bunch of sane, rational, good-humored intelligent Taiwan folks out for a Saturday ride was a life-affirming one, and we-renergized for the long ride home with a good-natured race down 3.

A wonderful ride! I'm a slow rider, but despite the climbs I kept up a good speed for me, averaging 20.2 kms/hr over the entire 166 kms. The entire area from 149 on south through Meishan and down to Alishan is surpassingly lovely and is highly recommended. Looking forward to spending more time there this fall, and hope to see you on the road soon!

ADDED: Drew's post on our ride.

__________
Daily Links

• The East Asian Arms race is aimed at China
• The hazards of ghost money
• Being a Taiwan beer girl
• Taiwanese runners surprise Kenyans, win Taroko Gorge Marathon
  

_______________________
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.

DPP Set to Win in Yunlin, Penghu Voters Reject Referendum

w00t! Good news breaks out all over Taiwan today. Yesterday I blogged on the imminent arrival of gambling in the Penghu, which everyone was saying was a foregone conclusion. After all -- Penghu was a KMT stronghold, and the KMT strongly supported gambling. The KMT-controlled legislature had loosened the restrictions on referendum, relaxing the rule that 50% of eligible voters must vote, just to get it passed. There had been a media blitz, and the big money was waiting for the opportunity to "develop" the island as a gaming mecca. It looked like a sure thing.

Incredibly, the KMT could not even get the vote it wanted in the place that it controls. As the Liberty Times reported today:

針對「澎湖要不要設置國際觀光度假區附設觀光賭場」所進行的全民公投，最後票數為，反對票17359票；贊成13397票票，反對票數大幅超過贊成票。這次公投全縣分設112個投票所，共有7萬3651名投票權人，其中男性3萬7796人，女性3萬5855人。結果出爐，開票現場反賭聯盟的工作人員相擁而泣。

...which is to say that the referendum to allow international standard hotels with gaming (gambling) was defeated 17,359 to 13,397, in an area of 73,651 eligible voters. 112 polling stations were erected. The referendum was defeated 56%-44%. Remember, Ma won the election 58-41 in a "landslide."

It is easy to see why the Ma Administration has been fighting so strongly to keep the ECFA economic agreement with the CCP China from being submitted to a public referendum.

My wife asked the $64,000 question -- "But do you think they will honor the outcome?"

Meanwhile, in the Yunlin legislative by-election, in the Second District of Yunlin County, the DPP candidate is apparently on the way to a crushing victory. Last I heard the vote was over 70K for the DPP, and less than 25K for either of the other two candidates. The by-election was held because KMT Legislator Chang Suo-wen was convicted of vote-buying by the Taiwan High court June 30 and the election was annulled. The Taiwan News said yesterday:

The poll is a three way race between 40-year-old social activist DPP Yunlin County Councilman Liu Chien-kuo, who was defeated by the vote-buying KMT candidate, the official KMT nominee Yunlin Technology University Professor Chang Keng-hui and Yunlin Water Conservancy Society President Chang Kui-yuan, the father of the errant ex-KMT lawmaker.

As Chang Keng-hui's campaign manager is none other than ex-KMT Yunlin County mayor and "boss" Chang Jung-wei, who recently served a prison term for vote buying himself, the campaign constitutes a direct face-off between two KMT candidates directly linked with convicted vote-buyers and a direct victim of "black and gold" money politics running for the DPP.

A glorious day.
_______________________
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

Art and Architecture in Yunlin

Another Saturday, another excursion, this time to Yunlin to look at some old Art Deco buildings dating from the Japanese period, guided by my friend the history buff Drew. We also took my 14 year old son along, so we'd have someone to abuse when we got tired of picking on each other. As always, click on any pic to visit its Flickr page to see it in a different size. Click on read more to see more...