The Jinjiang–Kinmen Pipeline is a pipeline that supplies

drinking water Drinking water is water that is used in drink or food preparation; potable water is water that is safe to be used as drinking water. The amount of drinking water required to maintain good health varies, and depends on physical activity level, a ...

from

Jinjiang City Jinjiang () is a county-level city of Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China. It is located in the southeastern part of the province, on the right or south bank of the Jin River, across from Quanzhou's urban district of Fengze. Jinjiang also bor ...

Mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

Kinmen County Kinmen, alternatively known as Quemoy, is a group of islands governed as a county by the Republic of China (Taiwan), off the southeastern coast of mainland China. It lies roughly east of the city of Xiamen in Fujian, from which it is separate ...

Fujian Province, Republic of China Fuchien Province , also romanized as Fujian and rendered as Fukien, is a nominal province of the Republic of China (Taiwan) without formal administrative function. It includes three small archipelagos off the coast of the Fujian Province of ...

Background

Being a small island

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

, Kinmen had been facing

water scarcity Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water Water resources, resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity: physical or economic water scarcity. Physical water ...

problems for years. In 2013, the county drew more than 8,000 tonnes of

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...

every day.

Reservoirs A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including control ...

were barely sufficient to supply water during

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...

. The

Kinmen County Government The Kinmen County Government () is the local government of the Republic of China that governs Kinmen County. Organizational structures Bureau * Civil Affairs Bureau * Finance Bureau * Education Bureau * Economic Development Bureau * Public W ...

considered seawater

desalination Desalination is a process that takes away mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination refers to the removal of salts and minerals from a target substance, as in Soil salinity control, soil desalination, which is an issue f ...

as one of several options. However, the cost of desalination was too much for the county government to bear. Therefore, purchasing water from mainland China was the most feasible solution.

History

Kinmen County first expressed their intention to purchase water from mainland China in 1996 when it suffered from severe drought. In 2000, the Water Resources Bureau accessed the idea of creating such infrastructure project. In June 2013, Taiwan and mainland China agreed to cooperate to solve the water shortage in Kinmen during the

Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement The Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement, commonly abbreviated CSSTA and sometimes alternatively translated Cross-Strait Agreement on Trade in Services, is a treaty between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) tha ...

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

. In late August 2013, a delegation from Kinmen County led by Kinmen County Deputy Commissioner Wu You-qin () held talks with their mainland counterparts in mainland China. In 2014, the

Executive Yuan The Executive Yuan () is the executive branch of the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Its leader is the Premier, who is appointed by the President of the Republic of China, and requires confirmation by the Legislative Yuan. ...

gave approval for the Jinjiang–Kinmen Pipeline project. On 23–24 May 2015, Head of

Taiwan Affairs Office The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council is an administrative agency under the State Council of Mainland China. It is responsible for setting and implementing guidelines and policies related to the Republic of China (Taiwan), as stipulate ...

Zhang Zhijun Zhang Zhijun (; born 1 February 1953) is a Chinese diplomat and politician. From 17 March 2013 to 21 March 2018, he has served as the Minister of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council. He is currently the president of the Association fo ...

visited Kinmen to discuss the water supply plan from Fujian to Kinmen while touring the Tianpu Reservoir. Later in July 2015, both sides signed the agreement for mainland China to supply drinking water to Kinmen by the water authorities of both sides.

Inauguration ceremony

The water started its maiden supply on 5 August 2018 in a ceremony named ''Cross-Strait Water Supply Ceremony'' in

Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the wor ...

which was attended by Kinmen County Magistrate

Chen Fu-hai Chen Fu-hai (; born 3 June 1963) is a Taiwanese politician. He was the Magistrate of Kinmen County from 2014 to 2018, and again since 25 December 2022 as an independent politician. Education Chen obtained his bachelor's degree from the Departme ...

and

Kinmen County Constituency Kinmen County is represented in the Legislative Yuan since 2008 by one at-large single-member constituency (Kinmen County Constituency, ). Current district * Kinmen County Legislators Yang Cheng-wu resigned in 2018 after elected Kinmen ...

Legislator A legislator (also known as a deputy or lawmaker) is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people of the state. Legislatures may be supra-national (for ex ...

Yang Cheng-wu Yang Cheng-wu (; born 26 June 1972) is a Taiwanese politician. He has served as Magistrate of Kinmen County since 25 December 2018, having won the office in the 2018 Taiwanese local elections. Prior to contesting the magistracy, Yang represented ...

. Separately at the same day in mainland China, a separate ceremony was held at

which was attended by

Director

Liu Jieyi Liu Jieyi (; born December 1957) is a Chinese diplomat and politician. From March 2018 to December 2022, he was director of the Taiwan Affairs Office. From 2013 to September 2017, he was China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (U ...

, former Fujian Province Governor

Yu Weiguo Yu Weiguo (; born October 1955) is a Chinese politician who served as Communist Party Secretary of Fujian. Prior to that he served as Deputy Communist Party Secretary and Governor of Fujian, and Communist Party Secretary of Xiamen. Biography Yu ...

and more than 20 councilors of

Kinmen County Council The Kinmen County Council (KMCC; ) is the elected county council of Kinmen County, Republic of China. The council composes of 19 councilors lastly elected through the 2018 Republic of China local election on 24 November 2018. Speakers * Wang Za ...

Technical specification

From Mainland China, the water is mainly sourced from Longhu Lake () which has a capacity of 655 million m³ of water. The lake is the second largest lake in

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

. From the lake, the water goes to a

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a ...

pumping station Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as well drilling, drilled wells and drinking water, are facilities containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastru ...

and transported inland to the coastal city of Bingzhou before being transported through an undersea pipe which spans over a length of 16.7 km through the straits separating

and Kinmen. After reaching Kinmen Island, the pipeline goes for another 300 meters inland to a

water treatment plant Water treatment is any process that improves the quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recreation or many other uses, includ ...

before supplying the Tianpu Reservoir. The maximum capacity of the pipe can reach up to 55,000 tonnes per day.

Finance

Both sides signed an agreement on a 30-year water purchase agreement. Under the agreement, Kinmen imports at an average of 34,000 tonnes of water per day at a cost of NT$9.86 per cubic meter of water. The total cost for the pipeline construction was NT$1.35 billion.

References