Standing in front of a giant banner hanging from a water gate and emblazoned with the words “protect the water,” hundreds of farmers and farmers’ rights activists yesterday protested at the source of an irrigation channel in Changhua County’s Sijhou Township (溪州) over the Central Taiwan Science Park’s (CTSP) plans to divert water from the irrigation system.

“Water is already scarce and [the Changhua County Irrigation Association] only supplies water through irrigation channels four out of every 10 days,” Hsieh Pao-yuan (謝寶元), a farmer and president of the Alliance Against Water-Jacking by the CTSP, told the crowd. “With the CTSP planning to take more water from the irrigation channel, we Chang-hua farmers are going to be left with nothing — that is why we have to stand united and protect the water.”