By Steven Crook / Contributing reporterTwice in the last fortnight I’ve been to Kaohsiung’s Agongdian Reservoir (阿公店水庫), and not just because it’s a toponym I adore. The Fujianese migrants who arrived in the 17th century changed the pronunciation to “A-kong tiam,” and applied it to both the town now known as Gangshan (岡山) and the stream called Agongdian Creek (阿公店溪). Agongdian Creek was dammed in the early 1950s to create a reservoir with a surface area of 410 hectares. A 2009 survey of 59 reservoirs in Taiwan found Agongdian to be among the five worst affected. In the case of Agongdian Reservoir, an estimated 32 percent of its catchment area is devoted to orchards.

Source: Taipei Times December 19, 2019 15:56 UTC