Manufacturers in northern Taiwan suffering water shortages will have to endure the problem until the government completes construction of a network to connect the nation's reservoirs, officials of the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
"We will propose a construction project to link major reservoirs," Chen Shen-hsien (
The network would mean that if a region's main water supplies were knocked out, for example due to a natural disaster, water could be sourced from another region.
"Hopefully the proposal will be passed by the Cabinet by the end of the year," Chen said.
The amount to be invested is not available yet, as the water agency is still studying the project, he added.
Taiwan's worst water stoppage, caused by Typhoon Aere last month, has impacted 2,287 industrial water users in the Taoyuan area of northern Taiwan, resulting in losses of more than NT$4.3 billion. Companies in the region, including Nanya Technology Corp (
Although water services were restored over the weekend, Shihmen Dam (
"If water shortages occur again that affect household water supplies, we will be forced to halve supply to industrial users," Chen said.
Lee Tieh-min (
Water shortages have been a persistent problem for manufacturers during droughts in recent years -- but now flooding is the problem. Companies in Hsinchu Science Park (
Chen said the Taiwan Water Supply Corp (自來水公司) has a limited budget to construct the network to link the reservoirs, due to low water prices. The network is intended to balance water resources in the nation. The agency plans to propose that funds be allocated from the central government to carry out the project.
Dams near regions like the Hsinchu Science Park, the emerging Southern Taiwan Science Park (
Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) added that the ministry is considering adjusting water prices to reflect costs. Ho said the timetable and range of the hike have not yet been determined.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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