The job provided Hatta with opportunities to venture deep inside Tainan Prefecture in the countryside around the Tsengwen River and to gain experience with water engineering. The Office of the Governor-General later assigned Hatta to design and build Taoyuan's irrigation network, which provided water to 20,000 hectares of rice paddies. Before that job was completed, Hatta's outstanding performance caused his superiors to move him to a more challenging assignment.
隨後八田又被總督府指派負責設計、興建「桃園埤圳」灌溉工程，以灌溉 2 萬公頃的稻田，八田與一的優異表現讓長官在工程還沒竣工前就將他調離，付予更艱鉅的任務。