Taiwan is planning to build a 15.5km water transfer tunnel as one of three projects to bolster water supplies to Kaohsiung, the island-state’s second largest city.
The US$450m tunnel, which will connect the Laonung river with the Tsengwen reservoir in Tainan county, north of Kaohsiung, will replace the Meinung reservoir project.
Taiwan’s newly-elected president Chen Shui-bian scrapped the Meinung scheme following stiff local opposition.
Details of the Laonung-Tsengwen tunnel are being drawn up by Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, although feasibility studies and environmental impact assessments have still to be finalised.
Construction is estimated to take 10 years partly because of the project’s difficult terrain, passing through heavily faulted rock.
