Water cut-off deals great blow to industries in Taoyuan, northern Taiwan

Taipei, Sept. 3, 2004 (CENS)--Over the past week or so, the industrial sector of Taoyuan County, northern Taiwan, whose industrial output value tops those reported by Taiwan's other 15 counties, has lost multi billion NT dollars in revenue because of the lingering water cut-off caused by Typhoon Aere.

The typhoon swept across northern Taiwan late last month and led to serious landslides in many places in its wake. Tons of mud slid into rivers and creeks that run to reservoirs including the Shihman Reservoir, causing an unprecedented liquid cloudiness at most of the waterworks of the Taiwan's largest reservoir.

Taiwan's tap-water administration the state-run Taiwan Water Supply Corp. has ordered stopping supplying water at many of the waterworks before it can deal with the serious water cloudy problem. This water cut-off, which enters its 10th day today, has forced many enterprises in Taoyuan to partly or completely shut down their production lines.

According to statistics recently released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), the water cut-off took a heavy toll on 253 enterprises in the county over the past eight days, causing them to lose around NT$2.5 billion (US$73.5 million at US$1:NT$34) totally. Around 40 of them are electronics manufacturers, whose combined loss reached NT$521 million (US$15 million). This county hosts Taiwan's largest number of suppliers of printed circuit boards (PCBs) and suppliers of thin-film transistor liquid-crystal displays (TFT-LCD).

The statistics showed that the chemical industry was the second seriously affected industry in the county, with its 39 manufacturers suffering a combined loss of NT$319 million (US$9.3 million). The textile industry was the third one, with its 14 manufacturers reporting a total loss of NT$161 million (US$4.7 million).

Put aside the manufacturing sector, the county's service sector saw a combined output loss of NT$84.52 million (US$2.4 million) over the past eight days, according to the MOEA statistics.

Some unofficial estimates showed the loss was larger than the one MOEA estimated. Director of Kuanyin Industrial District Service Center, S.T. Chu, pointed out that 311 of the industry district's total 350 enterprises reported a total loss of NT$8 billion (US$235 million). HwaYa Technology Park's director, J.S. Liao, pointed out that the park's enterprises lost around a combined NT$500 million (US$14.7 million) each of the past eight days.

Many water truck companies have cashed in on the water cut-off to exploit water-desperate manufacturers by hiking the charge for a transportation of a truck-loaded water by six folds from NT$5,000 (US$147).