As storage levels at the nation’s major reservoirs have dropped below their five-year average levels, the Water Resources Agency (WRA) yesterday said it would discuss stricter conservation measures next week.
The Shihmen Reservoir (石門水庫) is holding just 49 percent of its total capacity, at 101.73 million cubic meters of water, 49.26 million cubic meters below its five-year average, agency statistics showed.
The reservoir is a major water source in northern Taiwan, supplying water to New Taipei City’s Banciao (板橋), Sinjhuang (新莊) and Linkou (林口) districts as well as to electronics manufacturers in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區).
Photo: CNA
The first phase of water rationing measures in areas supplied by the reservoir began on Wednesday.
MARCH 9
“We are scheduled to examine the nation’s water supply situation on March 9 after implementing the first-phase water rationing measures,” agency spokesman Wang Yi-fung (王藝峰) said by telephone.
Photo: CNA
On the agenda will be further rationing measures for northern Taiwan, where there has been a lot less rainfall than over the same period in past years.
Heavy water users such as semiconductor companies and flat panel makers will see their supplies cut by 5 percent to 20 percent of their normal levels if second-phase rationing measures are implemented, the agency said.
However, agency officials said that they want to minimize the chance of starting third-phase rationing — the agency’s highest level — before May.
FARMERS AFFECTED
The agency has reduced supplies to farmland in some areas of northern Taiwan by 25 percent to 30 percent, with supply to those areas reduced slightly during off-peak hours from 11pm to 6am.
To encourage farmers to temporarily allow some land to be fallow, the agency yesterday said it would provide an extra subsidy of NT$25,000 per hectare to farmers, in addition to the NT$45,000 subsidiary they receive from the Council of Agriculture.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last