25% of Hushan Completed

A brief report in today's Taipei Times says that 25% of Hushan Dam has been completed and that the Reservoir project on time.

The Hushan Dam project is once again put forward as the solution to Yunlin County's groundwater problems. What the piece fails to mention is that only around 12% of the water in Hushan will go towards domestic consumption and that the remainder is for industrial use in mostly new industrial development projects. The Hushan Dam isn't the solution to Yunlin's groundwater and land sinkage problems. Sound management and environmental consideration is the solution, not further development of heavy polluting industry.

In related news the Vice minister of Economic Affairs has been detained for bribery concerning bid-rigging on water related construction projects. Taiwan Water Corp vice president Yang Shui-yuan and Chang Yi-min, director of the Water Resources Agency's second river management office are also suspected of involvement in the bid-rigging on the construction projects. One can't but wonder about Hushan.