With the units in charge of agriculture lacking the concept that irrigation and drainage should be separate, and the amount of water used by factories being far greater than any one in agriculture had imagined, plus an unwillingness to turn down any comers, agricultural water channels eventually became the most convenient waste water drainage systems for industry.
工、農不分家，工廠製程排出的汙水，又因一未做防治、二未做排水管路，在農業單位缺乏灌、排分離觀念，工業用水又超乎農業人士的想像之上，來者不拒，農業水路遂成為工業最好的搭排系統。