By Taipei, 28 de agosto (CNA) La Agencia de Recursos Hídricos (WRA, por sus siglas en inglés) defendió las propuestas para un túnel de 17,3 kilómetros de largo desde Nanshi Creek (南勢溪) en el distrito Wulai de New Taipei hasta Shihmen Reseivor en Taoyuan el domingo en medio de preocupaciones sobre el medioambiente y el impacto ambiental del proyecto. costos sociales.
En un comunicado, la WRA, dependiente del Ministerio de Asuntos Económicos, dijo que el proyecto se estaba sometiendo a una evaluación de impacto ambiental y que la construcción no continuaría sin la aprobación de los residentes locales en Wulai.
Los comentarios de WRA se producen después de que grupos ambientalistas y miembros de la comunidad indígena de Wulai expresaron su oposición al proyecto en un informe publicado por el United Daily News en idioma chino.
In the report, the Taiwan Ecological Engineering Development Foundation called on the WRA to cancel plans for the tunnel, saying the project would have a devastating ecological impact on Nanshi Creek and the protected species that inhabit it.
Meanwhile, a local Atayal resident said he feared construction work could force members of Wulai’s Indigenous community off their land, or trigger devastating landslides similar to those that killed at least 471 people in the mountain village of Siaolin (小林) in Kaohsiung during 2009’s Typhoon Morakot.
Speculation emerged in the wake of the disaster in Siaolin over the role played by the ongoing construction of a tunnel diverting water from Cishan River (旗山溪) and Laonong River (荖濃溪) into Zengwen Reservoir (曾文水庫).
However, the WRA denied that the impact of the landslide had been exacerbated by construction work on the tunnel, which has been suspended since Typhoon Morakot.
The WRA said that construction of the tunnel would have a minimal impact on local ecology in Wulai and would also have a limited effect on the water supply of the Greater Taipei region.
As part of what it calls «cross-regional water resource dispatch,» the WRA said it chose Nanshi Creek as it was more than likely to have sufficient rainfall to send to other parts of northern Taiwan, including Taoyuan and Hsinchu, to relieve water shortages there aside from meeting the existing needs of the Greater Taipei region.
The construction of the tunnel is expected to cost NT$18.6 billion (US$613 million) over a span of 4.5 years, according to the WRA proposal.
Fuente: Focus Taiwan
