Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above Page #2

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the pseudo European architecture

doesn't go well with the surroundings.

Furthermore, we refuse to admit

the land cannot bear

the strong impact brought upon

by a development on such a large scale.

But until disaster strikes

luxurious B&Bs continue to be built.

All due to the unstoppable flows of tourists

as vacationing, eating vegetable

and drinking tea grown in the mountains

have become trendy things to do.

No one realizes that he himself

is an accomplice in causing disasters.

The forests and mountains are hurt.

Again and again, heavy rain washes

the flesh and blood from their bodies.

In the end, they dropped into the valley.

When the river flows through the valley,

the mud is deposited and becomes sediment.

Therefore,

a reservoir becomes

a deposit of mud and stones.

Wanda Reservoir was also known as

Green Lake for its beautiful bluish green water.

Today the deposit of mud and rocks

in the reservoir is up to 80 million tons

which takes up almost 70% of

the capacity of the reservoir.

The beautiful bluish green water

is no longer seen.

What we see now is a pool of muddy water.

Most of the reservoirs in Taiwan

are facing the crisis of deposits.

Almost one third of the capacity

is eaten up by mud.

The total volume of the 17 major reservoirs in Taiwan

was 2.65 billion cubic meters.

By 2010, only 1.93 billion cubic meters was left.

The volume of deposits has already

reached 710 million cubic meters.

However,

the volume of the deposits is increasing at

a rate of 22 million cubic meters every year.

The life expectancy of the reservoirs

is getting shorter and shorter,

so the amount of water we can keep

is getting smaller and smaller.

We fail to keep the rain that

Nature bestows on us.

We helplessly watch it flow towards the sea.

From the sky above

the southwest coast of Taiwan,

endless fish farms come into sight.

Forty thousand hectares of the surface of

the island are fish farms.

Various species of fish are farmed

for a total value of

30.7 billion Taiwanese dollars

which makes up one third of

the whole fishing industry in Taiwan.

Fish farming needs

large quantities of clean water.

As a result, a large amount of

groundwater has to be extracted.

Hence

countless water pipes are laid across the

embankments and used to extract groundwater.

According to the statistics,

including the industrial use,

more than 5 billion tons of groundwater

are extracted every year.

This is an amount far more than

the land can bear.

When the amount of groundwater

extracted exceeds the limit,

the land begins to sink.

At the moment, the land that

sinks fastest is in Yunlin County.

On average,

the land sinks more than 7 cm each year.

So far, the land has sunk

more than two meters deep.

Taiwan is gradually sinking.

In the plains on the west coast,

more than 1,000 square kilometres

of the surface has sunk below the sea level.

Therefore, when the seawater intrusion occurs,

the fields and houses all go underwater.

The high-water marks on the walls

are vivid records of each visit by the sea.

The ancestors who have long rested

underground have also fallen victim to it.

The beautiful land they chose to settle

in a century ago is flooded with salt water.

Their burial ground has turned into the sea.

The straight artificial harbours

replaced the beautiful zigzag coastline.

Every seven kilometres along

the west coast of Taiwan

lies an artificial harbour built of concrete.

Abalone farms had once dominated

the northeast coast of Taiwan.

The beautiful rocky coastline

was cut and divided by concrete.

With profit in sight,

no one had ever thought

the damage was irreversible.

The protruding breakwater

causes changes in sand distribution

and results in the so-called "groin effect".

It means sand accumulates

in large quantities on the side facing the current.

On the other side, sand is lost to the sea

and this means the shore is receding.

As a result, we put even more tetrapods

to stop the erosion by the sea.

So more and more concrete

is accumulated at the seaside.

The artificial tetrapods replace the natural rocks

where sea creatures gather and hunt for food.

Taiwan has a coastline of 1322 km

of which 55.56% has concrete built upon it.

We built a wall

separating ourselves from the sea.

Moreover,

it stops our children getting close to the sea.

Isn't it such an irony

for an island country like Taiwan?

The sea is where life originated.

The sea is not a barrier.

It's the route from

this island to the rest of the world.

We should never see

it as a barrier or let it stop us.

More importantly,

we should never change its colour

or destroy its natural purity.

The wetlands are natural water purifiers.

Toxins are depleted here

before flowing into the sea.

Therefore they gained

the reputation as "the kidney of the Earth".

However, due to overdevelopment

and environmental pollution,

the wetlands are shrinking.

If we carry on what we have been doing,

more than half of the wetlands in Taiwan

will disappear in front of our eyes.

The over-fertilized farmland,

over-use of detergents and sewage

all are causes of eutrophication.

Together with the untreated water

from factories,

they turn clear running water

into a pool of stagnant water.

Due to untreated water from factories

and garbage pollution,

the Guanyin Coast of Taoyuan has lost

the beautiful turquoise colour it once had.

The polluted and pristine waters

separate from each other like Yin and Yang.

We follow the black current,

tracing it back to the estuary.

From the polluted river,

the black current of untreated water

keeps flowing into the sea.

In Taiwan,

there are countless seriously

polluted rivers like this one.

An image like this frightens us,

but we either feel helpless

or pretend we cannot see it.

The untreated water not only pollutes the sea

but contains toxic substances.

Once they have soaked into the soil,

it will be even more difficult to get rid of them.

However, we drink water from here

and eat the crops grown here.

As we cannot see it,

we never feel threatened.

We have gotten used to blaming

Nature, the Earth and the government

when things go wrong.

These factories with corrugated iron roofs

once contributed to Taiwan's economic miracle.

They improved our lives

but also produced serious pollution.

By the time we had risen above the poverty line,

become better-off and started to pay attention,

the water pollution was unfortunately

growing at a faster rate than we could clean it.

Although we have

implemented environmental laws,

there are still factories which surreptitiously

pump out untreated water at night.

It adds a layer of black oil

to the polluted yellow water in the river.

All the living creatures in the river

were completely wiped out. None survived.

What is more shocking is that

such polluted water is allowed to

flow across residential areas.

So this is the environment we live in.

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