High Speed Rail (HSR) subsidence – uncovers farmers’ water struggle

Farmers in Yunlin County extract groundwater in order to irrigate their fields. However, construction of the HSR in Yunlin County has raised concern over passenger safety, which has brought the issue of ground subsidence under the spotlight once more. The government has responded by releasing plans to close up all wells within the vicinity of rail tracks, however the move has angered locals who rely on the groundwater to irrigate their fields, claiming that this scheme will undoubtedly destroy their livelihood. At the present time, no verdict has been reached as to whether or not the wells will be closed up, however the situation is a veritable tinderbox, the proverbial time bomb just waiting to go off.

According to statistics, daily domestic water usage for the area of Yunlin County currently stands at between 26 and 28 thousand metric tons, however with a mere 12 thousand metric tons of surface water available, between 14 and 16 thousand metric tons of water are being extracted from ground water supplies - this amounts to a massive 50 million metric tons of ground water being extracted each and every year. With farmers striving to increase productivity, the insufficient supply of surface water has resulted in the appearance of what are reckoned to be around 107,000 illegal wells in the Yunli-Changhua area. Naturally, to find a reason for the subsidence problems all fingers are being pointed at the farmers’ extraction of groundwater - however, on closer analysis one finds that the real villain is no other than our Water Corporation.

Liao Wen-he, Laihui Village Mayor from Erlun Township in Yunlin County, suggested that the relevant authorities should investigate the situation to ascertain two essential facts; firstly, whether or not there is any ground subsidence and secondly, if ground subsidence is discovered, who is to blame for the problem; farmers’ shallow groundwater wells or large-scale industrial water usage? Xu Hong-bo of Yunlin County’s Water Resources Department and Section Chief of the Water Resources Agency expressed that farmers’ wells only extract water for the irrigation of fields and consequently usually lie within 30 or so meters in depth. He continued that industrial wells used by the likes of Taiwan Water Corporation, various Irrigation Associations, Taiwan Sugar Corporation and many factories extract massive amounts of groundwater from deep-stratum. Challenge is nothing new to HSR, but with these kinds of troublesome ground subsidence problems that have been around for decades, and with HSR Yunlin Station scheduled to begin operating in 2015, the stage is set to test the relevant government departments’ ingenuity and wisdom in solving the issue.

High Speed Rail (HSR) subsidence – uncovers farmers’ water struggle

URL: http://www.peopo.org/news/77418

(以下為中文對照)

高鐵地層下陷　揭開農工水權之爭 ( 中正E報 )

照片

雲林縣農民以抽取地下水為主要灌溉水源，自從高鐵興建後，因行車安全上的考量，使得雲彰地區地層下陷的問題重新浮上檯面。政府計畫將高鐵沿線的地下水井封 口，但對依賴地下水灌溉的農民來說，無疑是斷了他們的生計，目前封井與否仍未有定案，但就像顆不定時炸彈，隨時可能引爆。根據統計，雲林地區一天所需的民 生用水大約在二十六至二十八萬噸之間，地表水供應量卻只有十二萬噸，不足的十四至十六萬噸便由地下水來供應，因此每年幾乎都要超抽五千多萬噸。而雲彰地區 的非法地下水井大約有十萬七千多口，農民為提高生產力，將只能提供三年兩作的農田轉為一年兩作，不足的地表水便由地下水來取代，因此，農民成為眾矢之的， 被認為是超抽地下水的主因。然而，大量抽取地下水造成地層下陷的元凶，卻指向自來水公司。雲林縣二崙鄉來惠村村長廖文合建議相關單位下去調查，調查是不是 地層下陷，是不是因為農民用的淺水井的問題，或是大型工業用水的問題。雲林縣政府水利處水利管理科科長許宏博也表示：農民要的是農業灌溉的，這類的井通常 是在幾十公尺，大部分都是在30公尺以內，然後較深層的，可能就是事業用井，大用水量的水井才會抽到深層的，比如說自來水公司、農田水利會、台糖公司，或 是工廠的用水。高鐵雲林站預計於2015年開通，但地層下陷的問題卻依舊存在，高鐵的經過，將數十年來的問題導引而出，考驗著政府單位的智慧。

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