First Trip To Deyuan Lake Reservoir (德元埤水庫)

Looking eastward from the Tainan 171 over the rice paddies to the earth dam at Wushantou reservoir.

The little replica windmill for which the site garners a certain amount of local fame. Place names in Taiwan occasionally baffle me; this lake in Tainan's Liouying district is called "Deyuan", which can be translated as either "German" or "German currency", and yet the entire site is peppered with references to the Netherlands like this windmill and a giant pair of wooden clogs. In addition, the entire site is referred to as "Holland Village" (荷蘭村) even though there isn't a village here. I can kind of understand the Dutch references given that the area in Liouying, as with other districts west of the foothills, is entirely flat and so bears a superficial resemblance to one of the Netherland's more famous characteristics, but then why the lake is called "German currency" lake is a mystery. I've asked Taiwanese friends, but I'm none the wiser for it. 

Oddly enough, the reservoir is empty. I'm not quite sure why this is yet, though the obvious guess is that there is a serious sedimentation problem, though raw, uninformed observation alone is not a sufficient judge of this.

You can see that the reservoir is formed only when the river overflows the banks of sediment.

The arrow in the sculpture points directly north and away from the windmill in the background. I have no idea why.

The local feeder stream flowing westward into Deyuan reservoir. It is heavily supplemented by water from the Chiannan irrigation canal issuing out of nearby Wushantou reservoir. An auxilliary function of Deyuan reservoir, I suspect, is to serve as a flood control facility for water that must be released from both Wushantou reservoir and the Chiannan canal system. The lake may be defined as a reservoir, or it may also be considered as a wetlands area.

Looking downstream (northward) as the feeder stream approaches Deyuan reservoir from the south.

The southward facing gates of the spillway at the westernmost end of Deyuan reservoir.

Tainter gates; of the five gates, all but the central gate (shown left) were opened to release water. 

The small stilling basin immediately beyond the gates.

Upstream view of the five spillway gates.

I left Deyuan reservoir and drove north to Baihe reservoir to try and improve upon the pictures I had taken there on Thursday, and yet I found that, not only was the weather slightly better (no rain), but that there was actually water issuing out of the spillway for the first time in a long time.

Water leaving the spillway must be an indication that an awful lot of sediment has been shifted in the last six months or so.

The ogee crest at the end of the spillway with the water falling over into the after bay. The fresh concrete of the new sluiceway is to the left.

The water seems to be coming out of the central gate only and yet it doesn't appear to have been raised at all and is on a level with the other two gates, left and right.

Another shot of the new sluiceway tunnel mouth with the bags of cement stacked up above the rip-rap.

Some parting shots on leaving Baihe late in the afternoon. This particular mountain has become so familiar to me.

A little panorama showing just how concentrated the dark clouds were.

Final picture of the day before the long drive back to Tainan city.