Shimen Reservoir Project

The Shimen Reservoir Project (石門水庫建設) was Taiwan’s first major water resources undertaking of the post-war era, conceived in the mid-1950s with substantial US aid and completed in 1964, facilitating flood control, irrigation, and hydroelectric power generation for the booming north of the country. On commissioning it was the largest reservoir in East Asia, and it remains the principal drinking water source for several million households across the region. The project’s footprint extends well beyond the dam itself: a model engineering town was laid out at Shiyifen New Village (十一份新村) in Longtan, and the displaced Tayal and Han Chinese households of the upper Dahan River (大漢溪) basin were forcibly resettled in a series of new villages downstream, principally along the remote coast of Guanyin.