Tropical Storm Nangka, which will leave Taiwan today, was expected to do little to ease the threat of drought in northern Taiwan, the Water Resources Agency (WRA) said yesterday.
Nangka, just off southern and eastern counties yesterday, was expected to pass Taiwan today as it moves northeast, Central Weather Bureau officials said.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"The impending drought in the north, however, remains a threat because little rainfall will be brought by Nangka," WRA Deputy Director Chen Shen-hsien (
In order to limit consumption, water pressure in northern counties, including Hsinchu, Taoyuan and Taipei, is still being reduced at night.
Chen said heavier water consumption due to the spread of SARS over the past two months has increased demands on the Shihmen Dam in Taoyuan County and the Feitsui Reservoir in Taipei County.
Chen said that the water supply for the north could be sustained until the end of the month because the storage level is 100 million cubic meters more than at the same time last year.
Facing the worst drought in the past two decades, Taipei City adopted water restrictions on May 13 last year.
Chen said a meeting by the Ministry of Economic Affairs about handling the impending water shortage will be held on June 17 to review rainfall this month and determine whether stricter conservation measures are needed.
According to the weather bureau, expected relief may come on Thursday with new precipitation.
According to bureau, rainfall last month was disappointing. Forecasters said yesterday that rainfall last month in Taipei was 88.8mm, far less than the normal level of 188mm to 303mm.
In central Taiwan, officials said, last month's rainfall was 100.8mm, less than the normal level of 162mm to 280mm.
In southern Taiwan, rainfall last month was only 13.5mm, which is far less than normal levels ranging from 98mm to 235mm.
WRA officials said yesterday that Nangka might make it possible to channel more water from the Kao-ping River, which divides Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties, to the Nanhua Reservoir in Tainan County.
The officials said water levels at the Tsengwen and Wushantou reservoirs in Tainan County are falling due to heavy demand from the agricultural sector for irrigation.
The water accumulations at the two reservoirs yesterday were at their second-lowest levels in the past three decades.
The level at the Tsengwen, the largest reservoir in the country, was 168.84m yesterday, lower than the dead storage level -- the level below which water must be pumped out -- of 171m.
Due to the approach of Nangka, the Council of Agriculture yesterday urged residents in mountainous areas to take precautions in the event of mudslides.
"Although Nangka is just a tropical storm, residents in mountainous areas on the Hengchun Peninsula should check to see whether revetment and escape canals nearby can resist torrential rain," said Wu Hui-lung (
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique