Email of the writer: dht0620@126.com
A fresh water pipeline connecting East China’s Fujian Province with Kinmen, a small island attached to Taiwan, was put into service on Aug. 5.
Kinmen was given its name in 1387 when the Hongwu Emperor in the Ming Dynasty appointed a military officer to administrate the island and protect it from pirate attacks. The island, which is about 2 kilometers east of Xiamen City, has been severely plagued by water shortage for hundreds of years due to its lack of rainfall, shallow lakes and geographical constraints which make building reservoirs and dams unfeasible. Local residents’ per capita annual water supply on the small island is 168 cubic meters, which is only one-third of the Chinese people’s average. According to Kinmen authorities, producing one ton of water for local residents costs about NT$50-60 (10-12 yuan, or US$1.63-1.96) and can surge to NT$70 during summers. In extreme drought conditions, water shipment from Taiwan to the islet costs as much as NT$200 per ton.
To tackle the challenges of water shortage, Kinmen used to draw large amounts of groundwater every day, and the land there is getting saline because of long-time pumping and overuse of underground water. Seawater desalination is also one of the options of local people. However, such a process is too complicated and costly. Compared with pumping groundwater and desalination, fresh water supply from the Chinese mainland is not only convenient, but also as cheap as NT$9.86 or 2 yuan per cubic meter.
The source of the fresh water is Fujian’s Jinjiang River. The pipeline from Jinjiang to Kinmen is about 28 kilometers long, of which 16 kilometers is underwater at a maximum depth of 24 meters. Construction cost of the 388 million yuan project is shared by the two sides. At present, the pipeline can provide 34,000 cubic meters of fresh water to Kinmen each day. The capacity could be soon expanded to 55,000 cubic meters if necessary.
In 2017, the precipitation in Kinmen was only 649 millimeters, which was a record low in 60 years. The fresh water shortage has not only influenced the daily lives of local residents, but also hampered the economic and tourism development of the small island. For instance, production of the famous local Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor is also negatively influenced. More and more residents are leaving the island because of water shortage and its sluggish economy. According to concerned statistics, Kinmen has a registered population of more than 130,000. However, only less than 60,000 people are actually living there and most young locals have to seek job opportunities in other places in Taiwan.
The Chinese Central Government attaches great importance to the livelihood issues of Kinmen people and the compatriots in Taiwan as a whole. Authorities from the Chinese mainland and Kinmen began to talk about the pipeline project as early as in 1995. Nevertheless, it took 20 years for the two sides to sign the construction project in 2015 since there are always some politicians in Taiwan who do not want to see the improvement of Kinmen residents’ well-beings and the cooperation across the Straits. Even after the completion of the water project and its successful trial operation in May this year, some Taiwan leaders still wanted to postpone its opening ceremony and official operation.
The pipeline project, which provides a stable water supply, is a milestone event in the history of Kinmen’s development as well as cross-Straits relations. Despite the fact that there are still some hindrances, such obstacles cannot stop Taiwan people’s pursuit of better lives. With the water pipeline project as a starting point, more cooperation in the livelihood fields, such as electricity, gas and other necessity supplies from the mainland, will be blooming in Kinmen and other parts of Taiwan.
(The author is the editor-in-chief of the Shenzhen Daily with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.)