Thursday night's thunderstorm did not alleviate the drought conditions in the Shihmen Reservoir's catchment area, the Water Resources Agency (WRA) said yesterday.
WRA Deputy Director Wu Yue-hsi (吳約西) said the reservoir's water catchment took in about 20.5mm of rainfall over the last 24 hours, or between 3 million and 3.5 million tonnes of water, which is equivalent to one to two days of supply.
“The rainfall was helpful in easing water shortages in the northern area for one or two days, but was not enough to end the drought,” Wu said.
The water agency took advantage of a cold front to make artificial rain in the catchment area on Thursday evening and early yesterday morning, Wu said.
The “rainmaking” effort will continue over the weekend, taking advantage of new waves of cold fronts that were expected to arrive yesterday and today, he said.
The water level of the Taoyuan County reservoir stood at 229.48m as of 11am yesterday, a level between low and very low, said Chien Chao-chun (簡昭群), deputy director of the Northern Region Water Resources Office.
The reservoir provides water to 13 townships in Taoyuan County as well as some townships in Taipei and Hsinchu counties.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS