China agrees to export water to Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands
Chinese tourists visiting Kinmen are accentuating the acute water shortage
China has agreed to supply water to a Taiwan-controlled island group near the mainland in another sign of fast-warming ties between the two former bitter rivals, officials said on Wednesday.
The fortified Kinmen island group only two kilometres from the mainland was a flashpoint during the cold war and was heavily shelled by Chinese forces in the late 1950s.
“Regarding the proposal for water imports from the mainland, the two sides have reached a consensus in the meeting,” said a brief statement after a meeting in Kinmen between officials from the Taiwan county government and China’s coastal Fujian province.
Details of the agreement, which needs final approval from higher authorities on both sides, were not released.
But Wang Teng-wui, head of the Kinmen water company, said the Chinese water supplies – through an undersea pipeline – would not exceed 50 per cent of the island’s demand.
Currently the water company, via desalination, underground supplies and a tiny dam, can supply up to 19,000 tonnes of water daily – 15,000 tonnes short of demand – for some 100,000 civilians and troops stationed there.