"Industries that use a lot of water need to be properly regulated, in practice as well as in words. In this way, a balance can gradually be found between availability and demand for water. This goal can only be achieved through the coordinated efforts of central and local governments."It is remarkable that a person apparently dedicated to the study of the geological and economic aspects to the problems of land subsidence and overuse of groundwater in Yunlin County can attribute only political causes to these problems and only political solutions to them. Professor Wen invites discussion of the general problem in the following way:
"I propose three main points for discussion with regard to Yunlin’s land subsidence problem. First, the demand for water resources in Yunlin County seriously outweighs the supply. As the shortage continues to worsen, the problem of excessive extraction of underground water refuses to go away. Second, industrial development keeps taking water from other users, causing farmers and fish farmers to bore their own wells to draw groundwater. Third, there is a question of whether we need a policy that would enforce the sealing off of wells."My submission to any such discussion would be that, as Professor Wen's phrasing itself reveals, this is properly understood as an economic problem, and not a political problem. The right questions to ask are technological and financial with an eye to the enterprise of producing water-recycling, aquifer-recharging and rainwater-harvesting equipment to market demand such that the sealing off of groundwater wells would become little more than a nuisance issue rather than one of substantial economic import. The positive externalities of such enterprises, were they to succeed, would go beyond the greater efficiency of water conservation necessary to managing the problem of land subsidence; Professor Wen himself points the way:
"Under this irrigation system, there are two crop periods each year. Considering the available water resources, rice cultivation in Yunlin County should be confined to the second crop. Since that crop coincides with the rainy season, there should be no water shortage. Why, then, do we still have this problem of excessive groundwater extraction? The trouble is that, in order to make more money, farmers plant rice in the first crop period, from February to June. Since there is no surface water available at that time, the only way farmers can irrigate their paddy fields is by using groundwater drawn from wells that they bore themselves."Consider the possible financial benefits to Yunlin farmers of having sufficient irrigation water of sufficient quality to provide for two rice crops per year instead of one. Professor Wen's phrasing "...in order to make more money..." should be properly placed in its rightful context of the attempt by these farmers to secure values necessary not only to staying alive but to making the conditions of life around them better.
This should really be written up as a letter...
Sirs,
It is remarkable that Professor Wen Jet-chau 溫志超, of Yunlin University of Science and Technology, who is apparently dedicated to the study of the geological and economic aspects to the problems of land subsidence and overuse of groundwater in Yunlin County, can attribute only political causes to these problems and only political solutions to them.
My submission to the discussion invited by the Professor in his Saturday 18th September editorial would be that his is precisely the wrong conclusion to draw. The cases of land subsidence and overuse of groundwater in Yunlin are properly understood as an economic problem, rather than a political problem. The right questions to ask are technological and financial with an eye to the enterprise of producing water-recycling, aquifer-recharging and rainwater-harvesting equipment to market demand such that the sealing off of groundwater wells would become little more than a nuisance issue rather than one of substantial economic import. Such equipment is apparently already used successfully in the midwest area of the U.S. and technological improvement in this field is ongoing with the commercial development of better filtering technologies for use in water recycling equipment. The positive externalities of such enterprises, were they to be brought to bear successfully in Yunlin County, would go way beyond the greater efficiency of water conservation necessary to managing the problem of land subsidence. Consider the possible financial benefits to Yunlin farmers of having sufficient irrigation water of sufficient quality to provide for two rice crops per year instead of one. Professor Wen's characterization of the Yunlin farmers as trying to get away with this "...in order to make more money..." should be properly placed in its rightful context of the attempt by these farmers to secure values necessary not only to staying alive but to making the conditions of life around them better.
Yours freely,
Michael Fagan
(Sent Saturday 18th September 2010. Published in the Taipei Times Thursday 23rd September 2010).
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