Hsinchu drought causes agency to consider rationing

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and other electronics manufacturers in the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park (新竹科學園區) need to cut water consumption by 5 percent after water supplies in the area fell to record lows.

Rainfall in Hsinchu, where most of the nation's electronics companies are based, reached 958mm in the last six months of last year, or about 12.6 percent of the average rainfall in past years, according to the Water Resources Agency under the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Other areas in the north received about 44 percent of the average in the same period.

The government said it will impose strict water rationing next month amid the lack of rainfall. But Chen Shen-hsien (陳伸賢), director-general of the agency, said companies in Hsinchu would not be affected by the impending water shortage.

The agency has encouraged industrial companies to recycle waste water and take advantage of groundwater resources, and would also ask companies in other industrial parks in the north of the island to improve water recycling, the ministry said.

According to a ministry report, the rate of recycled water usage has reached over 95 percent among semiconductor manufacturers, which allows them to maintain operations for one to one-and-a-half months if their water supplies were completely cut off.

The ministry has been building water recycling stations in major industrial zones in the Taoyuan and Hsinchu regions, which are expected to begin operating by the end of March. The stations will save an estimated 60,000 tonnes of water per day, Chen said.

Chen said the cost of using recycled water is NT$300 to NT$400 higher per tonne than regular water. The companies using recycled water will be required to share operation fees of the stations, Chen said. The same proposal was also brought to the Hsinchu Science Park for evaluation, he added.

The current water shortage has had little impact on the park's production, said Charlie Hsu (徐嘉立), the convener of a panel helping companies in the industrial park deal with water and electricity problems.

"Companies here were trying to save water allocated for consumer use for industrial use, but we hope to alleviate the problem soon," Hsu said.

TSMC, the world's largest custom chip maker, and other Hsinchu chip makers recently cut water consumption by about 3 percent, company spokesman Tzeng Jinnhaw (曾晉皓) said. TSMC's production hasn't suffered yet, he said.

Tzeng declined to say how much water the company consumes daily because the information could be used to estimate the company's output level.

Companies in Hsinchu faced a halt in production in March 2002 because of a drought. They had to truck in water to wash away chemicals used to etch circuits on chips and flat-panel displays.