aeeble

In the early years, the top of Dadu Mountain lacked a water supply, forcing residents to haul water down the mountain with bull carts or on their shoulders, or to collect rainwater in ponds—making life extremely inconvenient. In 1960, Dr. James Hunter, an American professor teaching at the Department of Sociology at Tunghai University, felt the difficulty residents had in accessing drinking water and promoted the establishment of the “Dadu Mountain Top Community Livelihood Improvement Committee.” He vowed to help residents install a tap water system. At the time, the total estimated cost was about 2.4 million NTD. In addition to seeking financial assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture, the Taiwan Provincial Government, and the Taichung County Government, Dr. Hunter donated his lifelong savings of 600,000 NTD to help the Dadu Mountain top residents set up a simple tap water facility. The tap water supply project was completed in April 1959. At that time, only Taichung City and Fengyuan in the Taichung area had tap water service; the nearby Tunghai Villa area did not receive tap water until 1982.