(原文同時刊登於自由時報 "政府失靈 台灣缺水" http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2013/new/mar/21/today-o4.htm, 英文版同時刊登於英文台北時報（Taipei Times）及其網站上，刊出的標題及網址如下：Water supply needs long-term plan, Translated by Paul Cooper, http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2013/04/02/2003558572)

王价巨

銘傳大學建築系 副教授

台灣降雨量豐富，但因山高河短水急，無法有效運用天然降水，加上土地無法保水，都讓臺灣越來越常聽聞旱災預警。然而，這些狀況已存在這麼久，政府單位難道連一點想法和對策都沒有？水資源管理的整合性作法已經是臺灣的生存議題。

經建會主管台灣的國土規劃，但顯然看不到指導各地方發展的上位計畫，產業發展方向模糊且多變，各縣市政府經常一窩蜂的搶進特定產業，造成資源浪費，也給予錯誤的期待。為了發展這些產業，相關用地只能不斷向都市外部擴展，過度開發自然林地，導致台灣的天然水資源保存更為不利。高用水產業對於水資源的需求更大，大環境的保水功能相對降低，逐步將台灣的水資源供應拉向死亡交叉。永續發展只是經建會其中一個業務項目，不是目標；永續發展只有指標，戰技、戰術、戰略完全沒有。沒有國土規劃及發展願景，其他單位如何據以進行整體規劃來因應？

農委會林務局是自然林地的主管機關，但是，對於開發的蔓延屢屢退讓失守，只能採取消極的造林，短期造林無法有效涵養水源，對於留住水資源不僅功能有限，更導致水保局的水土保持工作僅能流於推動農村規劃與造堤建壩，水土保持不佳，經常在大雨過後導致原水濁度過高，致使缺水現象頻傳。

經濟部水利署做為台灣水資源的主管機關幾乎看不到從管理面長遠思考的整體水資源策略規劃。築水庫蓄水，造堤壩防水，永遠都是以工程在因應水資源困境的緊急應變。即便近年開始在推動非工程措施，實際上也只是以工程思維在進行社區數目的數字堆疊，大規模的精彩誓師和現場演練、炫麗的科技媒介和廣告，是否確實瞭解有多少民眾藉此知道水災和旱災的減災整備和因應了？

內政部營建署做為空間事務的主管機關顯然乏力。面對少子化，卻還是放任各種開發幾近於失控的擴張，都市不斷蔓延，沒有成長管理，也沒有都市發展邊界，重劃區不斷劃設，土地不斷徵收，「保變住，農變建」讓大量的可透水面積變成不透水，每一塊基地個別審議卻刻意忽視整體供需已然嚴重失衡，大量興闢公共設施的服務人口不足更造成浪費。此外，大量的容積獎勵引入更多非預期性的人口，讓都市計畫基礎設施和用水永遠難以預估。都市藍綠網無法形成網絡，小區滯洪儲水無法推動，希望每塊基地雨水都不外流的要求又困難重重，都市水資源儲備流通網絡無法形成，降雨之後不透水鋪面致使雨水無法下滲，又急著把水排入河川、流入大海亦等同於將淡水資源快速轉化成鹹水，水資源又如何能保住？

順著開發思維，縣市政府經常忽略既有的傳統水利設施，甚至為了大規模開發而加以填平，更多的可蓄水面積被改變，造成雨季淹水，旱季缺水。再加上民眾習慣低水價，不把水當資源，為了產業進而超量抽取地下水等，致使水資源的無效耗用更多更快。

一個政府最值得擔心的是大家都看的出來螺絲鬆了，只有自己覺得拴的牢靠；單位間完全無法整合，各行其是，更遑論無縫接軌。如果只會在旱季才趕緊要求大家節約用水，這樣的措施只凸顯了單位的無力。台灣為什麼缺水？因為這個失靈的國家機器還沒有給我們一個看得到的未來。

Water supply needs long-term plan

By Wang Jieh-jiuh 王价巨

Translated by Paul Cooper

Despite abundant rainfall, the government is warning of a potential drought. This is because water passes over the surface of the land very quickly in Taiwan, into the short, rapidly flowing rivers and streams shooting down the steep gradient of the mountains that form the backbone of the island, into the surrounding seas. Because of this, the water is not able to seep into the land.That being said, this is a long-standing problem and one wonders why the government has failed to come up with an idea or strategy to address the problem. The nation’s survival depends upon a coordinated approach to water resource management.

The Council for Economic Planning and Development is responsible for national spatial planning, but it has no over-arching plan for local development.Industrial development is fragmentary and uncoordinated, with local governments competing and focusing on similar industries, leading to a waste of resources and misplaced expectations.Industry is expanding outside the metropolitan areas into woodlands and forests, resulting in their excessive development and making conservation of natural water resources more difficult.Water-intensive industries are also placing higher demands on these resources, and less water is being retained in the environment. All this has led to a precarious situation, with water resources at risk. The nation has reached a crossroads in which one wrong turn could spell doom.Sustainable development is just one duty within the council’s remit, it is not its main goal. General targets have been set, but there is little in the form of actual tactics, plans or strategies to achieve them.In the absence of any national spatial planning or vision for how development is to take place, how can individual departments and bureaus be expected to proceed according to a coordinated plan?

The Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Bureau is the agency directly responsible for overseeing the nation’s forestry resources.However, as the land it is supposed to protect continues to recede because of industrial development, all the bureau can do is try to create new forests and woodland elsewhere.It is next to impossible to conserve decent water resources in such young, temporary woodland and this restricts the water conservation projects of the Council of Agriculture’s Soil and Water Conservation Bureau to merely promoting rural planning, and constructing levees and dams.This inadequate soil and water conservation means that water sources are usually churned up and muddy after heavy rain, which is why the nation is experiencing a shortage of clean water.

The Water Resources Agency under the Ministry of Economic Affairs is responsible for managing the nation’s water resources, but it has no appreciable, coordinated, long-term strategic plan on how these resources should be managed.Undertaking engineering projects to build reservoirs to store water, and construct levees and dams for flood-prevention purposes are just emergency-response measures to address the problem of water resource management.Even non-engineering measures adopted in recent years, such as special promotions to get households and communities to conserve water, is just about piling up figures and is still born of an engineering mentality.Does the agency really think that these promotions have increased public awareness about how to reduce the risks of floods and droughts?

The Construction and Planning Agency under the Ministry of the Interior is similarly inept when it comes to national spatial resource planning, utilization and management. Despite a falling birth rate, it has allowed urban development to continue at an uncontrollable rate.There is no managed growth, nor boundaries imposed on urban development, and areas are being rezoned and land expropriated.The sheer amount of protected land being rezoned as residential and the scale of construction being allowed on land formerly designated for agricultural use only mean that many areas of land are being made impermeable, and water is no longer able to seep into it.Local review committees also ignore the serious imbalance in supply and demand, and the lack of staff to service the huge new public facilities being built, which is leading to a further waste of resources.In addition, these newly developed areas are encouraging population inflows, the size of which is hard to predict, and this makes it very difficult to plan urban infrastructure or estimate water usage.The green grids and blue networks in the cities are disconnected, and local storm water retention basins are not viable because the hope that rainwater in one area can be prevented from flowing out to others is fraught with problems.As a result, it is difficult to establish a water supply distribution network within a city.

Rainwater, unable to sink into the city’s impermeable surface, runs off into the rivers and waterways, flowing into the sea where it quickly becomes salinated and useless in terms of water conservation. In the name of development, local governments are neglecting traditional water conservation and irrigation facilities, and laying concrete over more areas that could have been used to store water. This will cause flooding during the rainy season and water shortages in the dry season.

The general public has also become used to low water rates and do not view water as a resource, and too much groundwater is being extracted. The nation’s water resources are being depleted at a greater rate than ever before.

The problem with the government is that its departments recognize that things are falling apart, but each believes it is the only one with the solution. There is no coordination, with each agency proceeding as it sees fit.If all the government can do is ask the public to conserve water during the dry season, these departments have clearly failed in their duty.The reason the nation suffers from water shortages is that the malfunctioning state machinery does not think long term.