A tropical low-pressure front forming to the east of the Philippines will begin to affect the weather in Taiwan by this evening, causing rain in southern and southeastern parts of the nation, the Central Weather Bureau said yesterday.
According to forecaster Chang Po-hsiung (
"The speed of the low-pressure system is increasing. Residents in the south and southeast have to be alert to heavy rains over the following days," Chang said.
With clouds gathering in the south yesterday, Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) inspected a water-treatment plant near a weir in the Kaoping River (高屏溪) after high water turbidity levels had jeopardized normal water supplies in the south. The plant is designed to treat water with a turbidity level of less than 600 NTU (nephelometric turbidity units), but now the level is about 20,000 NTU.
The situation was caused by the passage of Typhoon Haitang on July 18, which brought heavy rains to southern Taiwan.
Yang said that Kaohsiung residents might have to deal with water-restriction problems similar to those suffered by people in southern Taoyuan County if the turbidity problem could not be solved efficiently.
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