This was the second stop of our second field research. Upon arrival, we immediately felt a bad smell coming from the Caogong Canal in front of the temple. As this place is geographically in a lower position, it is known that this place is flooded every year in heavy rain season. When we are exploring the environment, we encountered Mr. Feng-Jung Lu, a local resident, and had the following interview with him.

Q：How long have you been living here?

A：I have been living here since I was born. I grew up here, and it's been more than 40 years.

Q：Has the flood problem here existed for a very long time?

A：Yes. It floods whenever there is a heavy rain. We all suffer a lot. One summer, all my furniture at home was soaked and damaged. It was a huge and painful loss. At that time, every way of transportation was blocked, and we were not able to drive the cars. I hope the flood problem can be solved soon.

Q：You mentioned that the flood problem has existed for a very long time.       Didn't the related government department take any remedial measure or       build any related construction?

A：They did spent money to build a construction, which is this check gate we can see here. In fact, however, this check gate did not relieve the flood problem. This facility was intended as a floodway instead of a water barrier. When the ditch starts to flood, it makes the flood problem more serious because the land is geographically lower around this area of 130 to 165 square meters. Besides, the only pump motor here is applicable to breakwater only, so it does not work for us. That's why this check gate does not improve the flood problem.

Q：You just mentioned that the design of this check gate is faulty. Could you       tell us the reason?

A：Just take a look at the design of this door. We can see that when the door is being opened, extra space is required for the one who opens the door to step back. But the designer did not save space for that. Normally, if the door is designed to pull, we would not have to waste the extra space. Furthermore, how could this drain pipe work? For discharge, we have to dig a hole over there; but for suction, there is no space for digging a hole because the check gate has blocked the way.

Q：How does the design of the check gate in this area cause you       disturbance?

A：Not to mention the filthy and stinky water quality, the design of the pump station which was finished this year is faulty. This is because the water is pumped, discharged and flow back in again. So the whole construction of this pump station is useless! The situation is like applying a pump motor to a basin full of water while the pipe connected to the basin keeps being filled with water. This case, with or without a pump, the results are the same. Therefore, we really hope that the government could evaluate the related construction and handle the matter appropriately as soon as possible, so that we can get out of this trouble soon.

Q：For how long has this problem lasted since the construction was       finished?

A：It has lasted for about 2 or 3 months. As we don't know if this check gate can be improved, we just leave it here for the time being. Besides, we don't understand much about this kind of stuff, so we do not take care of it. Yet, I have talked to our township chief about this. Even though Niao Song region is in a geographically lower position and nothing is to be blamed for that, we can at least dig the ditch deeper and wider so that we may have half hour to one hour more for escape when heavy rain comes.

Q：According to your experience living here, can you figure out why it      easily gets flooded here?

A：The ditch over there in Ren Wu Tai Su was originally used by the regional government for irrigation. But after the decline of agriculture, it has been used for drainage. Normally, a regional drainage ditch should be larger than the size of the drain ditch we have now. Because this drain ditch is not large enough, the speed of the floodway does not catch up with the speed of water discharge when rainstorm comes in summer; in addition, the ditch in Ren Wu leads water this way. The check gate here basically is not capable to handle such a huge amount of water. That's why there is never enough time to release the water. Every time when the rain stops, the water logged rises at a speed of 30 cm per hour. That's horrible.

Q：There is a heavily unpleasant smell over here. Do you know why?

A：I think the main problem is the lack of clean water flow here. The still waters are the sewage discharged from families and factories. That is why there is a stink. Besides, the water supply of Cao Gong Zun stops during non-irrigation period. Therefore, even though there is water in the ditch, the water is a highly concentrated sewage.

Reflection

    In order to prevent the irrigation water from being polluted by various kind of wastewater, Kaohsiung County government implemented the idea of "the separation of irrigation and drainage". Out of the expectation, however, it leads to an exactly opposite result. Not only did it fail to solve the flood problem but bring much inconvenience to the local residents. It is thus clear that the government should think thoroughly about the cause and effect before planning all kinds of constructions, so as not to waste money and arouse discontent among people. Thanks to Mr. Lu who lets us listen to the true feelings of the residents and understand the serious problems that Caogong Canal is now facing.