Hundreds of farmers and civic activists gathered outside the ROC Executive Yuan April 12 demanding the central government halt construction of a channel to divert irrigation water for the use of the Central Taiwan Science Park in Changhua County.
“This is the 12th time we have traveled to Taipei to protest the CTSP, and we want the premier to take action to solve the problem once and for all,” a protester said.
Renowned farmer-writer Wu Sheng said, “We just want to have water so we can continue farming.
“We seek to protect our region as one of the most important agricultural centers in Taiwan, to help keep the country from a food shortage.”
The channel is intended to draw water from Cizaipi Canal in Xizhou Township—a century-old waterway that helps irrigate 18,820 hectares of farmland in the county—for use at the site of the CTSP fourth-phase expansion, located in Erlin Township.
The farmers said diverting water to the science park is equivalent to robbing them of already insufficient irrigation water, noting that they must now irrigate four days and stop for six days due to water shortages.
Despite several months of protests, construction on the canal project began February 23, without previously passing an environmental impact assessment.
In March Cyrus CY Chu, minister of the National Science Council, the project developer, ordered a stop to the water diversion project, but work resumed March 22.
Chu said earlier this month that he had asked Premier Sean C Chen to reconsider the development of the CTSP, after which construction was halted under a three-day moratorium order. But work restarted soon after the moratorium expired, according to a local self-help group that has been observing the project since last year.
Changhua-based writer Wu Yin-ning, a member of the group, questioned the validity of taking water from farmers for a problematic science park plan.
According to news reports AU Optronics, which was expected to occupy 56 percent of the 631-hectare Erlin site, has decided not to build any facilities there, she pointed out.
Shih Yueh-ying, a local environmentalist, said in separate protest in Taipei April 11 that construction of the channel would only worsen the already serious land subsidence in the county, where the land is sinking an average 7 centimeters a year.
“The Executive Yuan should end the project immediately, to prevent a disaster,” she said.
The CTSP expansion at Erlin, costing NT$48.96 billion (US$1.66 billion), is scheduled to be completed in 2014.
