A Taipei Water Department official yesterday warned that the city may soon have to cut water supplies to households every other day.
While offering no clear timetable for when such restrictions would take place, Tsay Huei-sheng (蔡輝昇), director of the Taipei Water Department, warned city residents that all would soon share in the pain.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"If the rains refuse to come, the public will soon have to face even greater hardship, as measures such as the suspension of water supplies every other day will have to be imposed."
Other less severe ideas being discussed include a cut-off of water supplies once every five days to city districts on a revolving basis.
The fast-shrinking water supply also prompted the Taipei City Government to push forward the dates of its next series of conservation measures, Taipei City Deputy Mayor Ou Chin-der (
According to Ou, phases two and three of the second stage of rationing will be pushed forward to Wednesday next week.
"Our original plan was to implement rationing step by step. Unfortunately, the precipitous fall in levels [at the reservoir] has prompted us to carry out both [second and third] phases simultaneously," Ou said at a press conference held to address the city's anti-drought program.
According to Ou, phase two of the second stage of rationing will call for water supplies to be cut for both public and private recreational areas; such as swimming pools, saunas, car washes and beauty spas.
"Phase three will demand usage reductions of users who normally use more than 1,000m3 of water per month," Ou said.
"Under this [third] phase," Ou added, "places such as government agencies, military compounds, department stores, gas stations, temples, private companies and public and private schools will be required to cut back their monthly water usage by at least 20 percent."
Even hospitals will share the pain, according to Ou.
"And hospitals which use more than 1,000m3 per month will be asked to cut back their usage by at least 10 percent," Ou added.
Taipei Water Department director Tsay added that the agency would send officials to the listed places starting next Wednesday to check their daily water usage.
"If such places are found to be using more water than last year's daily average, they will face tougher measures, such as total water suspensions," Tsay said.
Tsay said that a total of approximately 1,447 establishments -- 150 due to implementation of phase two restrictions and 1,297 by enforcement of phase three restrictions -- would be affected.
According to Tsay, as of yesterday the water level at the Feitsui Reservoir (翡翠水庫) -- the city's main source of water -- had dropped to 132.81m from its previous record low of 133.25m.
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